Biology:Tragelaphus

Short description: Genus of mammals

Tragelaphus
An adult male greater kudu by the Chobe 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 Sparrman, 1780
Species
Tragelaphus angasii Tragelaphus buxtoni Tragelaphus eurycerus Tragelaphus imberbis Tragelaphus scriptus Tragelaphus spekii Tragelaphus strepsiceros Tragelaphus sylvaticus

Tragelaphus is a genus of medium-to-large-sized spiral-horned antelopes. It contains several species of bovines, 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 considerable sexual dimorphism. Elands, including the common eland (Taurotragus oryx), are embedded within this genus, meaning that Taurotragus must be subsumed into Tragelaphus to avoid paraphyly. Alternatively, Taurotragus could be maintained as a separate genus, if the nyala and the lesser kudu are relocated to their own monospecific genera, respectively Nyala and Ammelaphus. Other generic synonyms include Strepsiceros (which applies to T. strepsiceros) and Boocercus (for T. eurycerus). The name "Tragelaphus" comes from the mythical tragelaph.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

Giant eland     Common eland         Greater kudu       Mountain nyala           Bongo     Sitatunga             Cape bushbuck     Harnessed bushbuck                     Lowland nyala       Lesser kudu

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 tribe Tragelaphini and the family Bovidae. The genus authority is French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, who first mentioned it in the journal Bulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomatique in 1816. The name is not of modern scientific invention, but comes from ancient Greek τραγέλαφος (tragélaphos), from τράγος (trágos), meaning a "male goat", and ἔλαφος (élaphos), meaning a "deer".

Extant species

It is generally treated as having eight species, namely:.

Male	Female	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	300px	Bongo	Tragelaphus eurycerus	Kenya, Central and western Africa
	300px	Greater kudu	Tragelaphus strepsiceros	eastern and southern Africa
	300px	Cape bushbuck	Tragelaphus sylvaticus	Cape in South Africa to Angola and Zambia and up the eastern part of Africa to Ethiopia and Somalia.
	300px	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.
	300px	Lesser kudu	Tragelaphus imberbis	Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda
	300px	Mountain nyala	Tragelaphus buxtoni	central Ethiopia.
		Lowland nyala	Tragelaphus angasii	Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
	300px	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 for T. angasii; (ii) Ammelaphus for T. imberbis; (iii) Taurotragus for the two elands (T. oryx and T. derbianus); (iv) Strepsiceros for T. strepsiceros and (v) Tragelaphus restricted to T. buxtoni, T. spekei, T. scriptus, T. sylvaticus (Imbabala - separated from a polyphyletic T. scriptus) and T. eurycerus. In terms of divergence time estimates, a 2006 study showed that core Tragelaphus (now known to excude T. angasii and T. imberbis) diverged from Taurotragus (elands) towards the end of the Late Miocene.

References

Wikidata ☰ Q311375 entry