Machaeromeryx is a relative of the living musk deer, or moschids. It lived in North America in the early Miocene, around 8 million years ago. The large canine teeth of this specimen suggest that it is a male, and imply that by the Miocene the group had evolved a deer-like stage of social evolution. The skeleton shows features (e.g. reduction in side toes, equal-length fore- and hind-limbs, and more rigid backbones) which suggest that Machaeromeryx was a deer-like runner and leaper.

Moschids vanished from the fossil record of North America around 6 million years ago, but can still be found today in China and Tibet. Modern day moschids are solitary animals that live on forest edges and brushy habits and it’s possible that their fossil relatives lived in similar habitats. As with many groups of mammals in the Tertiary of North America, their disappearance may be due to loss of habitat from increasing aridity.