When I’m itching for a short jaunt out of Salt Lake City, I often drive up the highway to Antelope Island. The largest of the islands within the Great Salt Lake, the patch of land is so named because explorers John Fremont and Kit Carson shot a pronghorn – commonly called “antelope” – there during a visit in 1845. After that, the island changed hands multiple times, but since 1981 the Utah state park has been home to bighorn sheep, bison, and, of course, the island’s namesake animal. From an evolutionary perspective, though, the park should probably be called Giraffoid Island.

Pronghorn are not antelope. Admittedly, they bear a fleeting and superficial resemblance to the