Poor thing is extinct because it went crosseyed looking at the weird horn on the end of it's nose.

Poor thing is extinct because it went crosseyed looking at the weird horn on the end of it's nose.

Originally shared by American Museum of Natural History

Look out! This #FossilFriday might poke your eye out.  
Synthetoceras tricoronatus lived about 10 million years ago during the Miocene, and is a protoceratid, an extinct family of animals whose most distinctive characteristic was their horns on both forehead and snout. What were protoceratid horns used for? Possibly for fighting or sexual display during the mating season, or for recognizing members of their own species. These remain guesses, since protoceratids became extinct at least 5 million years ago. 
Find this fossil and other protoceratids in the Museum’s Hall of Advanced Mammals: http://bit.ly/19Kk02V