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About the Horned Gopher (Ceratogaulus):
One of the most improbable mammals of the Miocene epoch, the Horned Gopher (genus name Ceratogaulus) lived up to its name: this foot-long, otherwise inoffensive gopher-like creature sported a pair of sharp horns on its snout, the only rodent ever to evolve such an elaborate head display. Judging by its small eyes and mole-like, long-clawed front hands, Ceratogaulus evaded predators and avoided the noonday heat by burrowing into the ground--a trait shared by the prehistoric armadillo Peltephilus, the only other known horned, burrowing mammal.
The big question, of course, is: why did the Horned Gopher have horns? An amazing amount of paper has been expended on this mystery, the answer coming to us via the process of elimination. Since both male and female Horned Gophers possessed horns of the same size, they clearly couldn't have been a sexually selected characteristic, and the horns were oriented in such a way that they would have been practically no use in digging. The only logical conclusion is that the horns were meant to intimidate predators, which might have thought twice about lunching on the bite-sized Ceratogaulus if a more easily-swallowed creature was cowering nearby.
