''Tragelaphus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of medium- to large-sized, spiral- horned

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mamm ...

s. It contains several species of

bovine Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship betwe ...

s, 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 Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

. Elands, including the

common eland The common eland (''Taurotragus oryx''), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is a species of the family Bovidae and genus '' Taurotragus''. An adult male is ...

(''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

''Tragelaphus'' is a genus in the tribe Tragelaphini and the family

Bovidae The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, t ...

. 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 Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

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:. 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 The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...

References

Bovines Mammal genera Taxa named by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville {{eventoedungulate-stub