 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Tragelaphus" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Tragelaphus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| An adult malegreater kudu by theChobe River,Botswana | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Tribe: | Tragelaphini |
| Genus: | Tragelaphus (Blainville, 1816) |
| Type species | |
| Antilope sylvatica (=Antilope scripta)[1] Sparrman, 1780 | |
| Species | |
Tragelaphus angasii | |
Tragelaphus is agenus of medium-to-large-sized spiral-hornedantelopes. It contains several species ofbovines, all of which are relatively antelope-like. Species in this genus tend to be large in size and lightly built, and have long necks and considerablesexual dimorphism.Elands, including thecommon eland (Taurotragus oryx), are embedded within this genus, meaning thatTaurotragus must be subsumed intoTragelaphus to avoidparaphyly. Alternatively,Taurotragus could be maintained as a separate genus, if the nyala and the lesser kudu are relocated to their own monospecific genera, respectivelyNyala andAmmelaphus.Strepsiceros is a genericsynonym.[2] GenusBoocercus formerly containedT. eurycerus.[3] The name "Tragelaphus" comes from the mythicaltragelaph.
| Phylogenetic relationships of the mountain nyala from combined analysis of all molecular data (Willows-Munro et.al. 2005) |
Tragelaphus/trəˈdʒɛləfəs/ is a genus in the tribeTragelaphini and the familyBovidae. Thegenus authority is French zoologistHenri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, who first mentioned it in the journalBulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomatique in 1816.[1] The name is not of modern scientific invention, but comes from ancientGreek τραγέλαφος (tragélaphos), from τράγος (trágos), meaning a "male goat", and ἔλαφος (élaphos), meaning a "deer".[4]
It is generally treated as having eight species, namely:[citation needed].
| Male | Female | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) |  | Bongo | Tragelaphus eurycerus | Kenya, Central and western Africa |
 |  | Greater kudu | Tragelaphus strepsiceros | eastern and southern Africa |
.jpg) | _female.jpg) | Cape bushbuck | Tragelaphus sylvaticus | Cape in South Africa to Angola and Zambia and up the eastern part of Africa to Ethiopia and Somalia. |
 |  | Harnessed bushbuck | Tragelaphus scriptus | distributed from Senegal and southern Mauritania across the Sahel, east to Ethiopia, and south to Angola and the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
 |  | Lesser kudu | Tragelaphus imberbis | Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda |
_male.jpg) |  | Mountain nyala | Tragelaphus buxtoni | central Ethiopia. |
 |  | Lowland nyala orNyala | Tragelaphus angasii | Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. |
 |  | Sitatunga | Tragelaphus spekii | Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, parts of Southern Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Ghana, Botswana, Rwanda, Zambia, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. |
An alternative classification, supported by genetic data, would recognise 11 species in five groups, which could be treated as subgenera or full genera: (i)Nyala forT. angasii; (ii)Ammelaphus forT. imberbis; (iii)Taurotragus for the two elands (T. oryx andT. derbianus); (iv)Strepsiceros forT. strepsiceros and (v)Tragelaphus restricted toT. buxtoni,T. spekei,T. scriptus,T. sylvaticus (Imbabala - separated from a polyphyleticT. scriptus) andT. eurycerus. In terms of divergence time estimates, a 2006 study showed that coreTragelaphus (now known to excudeT. angasii andT. imberbis) diverged fromTaurotragus (elands) towards the end of theLate Miocene.[5]
Authority control databases: National |
|---|
.png) | This article about aneven-toed ungulate is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |