Tragelaphus

Tragelaphus
	An adult male greater kudu by the Chobe River, Botswana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Bovinae
Tribe:	Tragelaphini
Genus:	Tragelaphus; (Blainville, 1816)
Species
	Tragelaphus angasii; Tragelaphus buxtoni; Tragelaphus eurycerus; Tragelaphus imberbis; Tragelaphus scriptus; Tragelaphus spekeii; Tragelaphus strepsiceros; Tragelaphus sylvaticus

Tragelaphus is a genus of medium- to large-sized spiral-horned antelopes. It contains several species of bovine, all of which are relatively antelope-like. Species in this genus tend to be large sized, lightly built, 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).[1] The name "Tragelaphus" comes from the mythical tragelaph.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

	Giant eland

	Common eland

Greater kudu

Mountain nyala

	Bongo

	Sitatunga

Kéwel

Nyala

Lesser kudu

Phylogenetic relationships in Tragelaphus from combined analysis of all molecular data (Willows-Munro et.al. 2005)

Tragelaphus is a genus in the tribe Tragelaphini and the family Bovidae. The genus authority is the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, who first mentioned it in the journal Bulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomatique in 1816.[2] The name is composed of two Greek words: tragos, meaning a male goat; and elaphos, meaning deer.[3]

Extant species

It is generally treated as eight species, namely:.

Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
Bongo	Tragelaphus eurycerus	Kenya
Greater kudu	Tragelaphus strepsiceros	eastern and southern Africa
Bushbuck	Tragelaphus sylvaticus	Cape in South Africa to Angola and Zambia and up the eastern part of Africa to Ethiopia and Somalia.
Kéwel	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
Mountain nyala	Tragelaphus buxtoni	central Ethiopia.
Nyala	Tragelaphus angasii	Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, 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 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.[4]

References

Integrated Taxonomic Information System
Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 697. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
"Tragelaphus". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
Ropiquet, A. (2006). "Etude des radiations adaptatives au sein des Antilopinae (Mammalia, Bovidae)". Ph.D. Thesis, Université Paris. 6 (1–247).

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[1] Integrated Taxonomic Information System

[MSW3-2] Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 697. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.

[3] "Tragelaphus". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 7 February 2016.

[ropiquet-4] Ropiquet, A. (2006). "Etude des radiations adaptatives au sein des Antilopinae (Mammalia, Bovidae)". Ph.D. Thesis, Université Paris. 6 (1–247).