''Miotragocerus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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

bovid The Bovidae comprise the family (biology), biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes Bos, cattle, bison, Bubalina, buffalo, antelopes (including Caprinae, goat-antelopes), Ovis, sheep and Capra (genus), goats. A member o ...

native to Eurasia during the latter part of the Miocene epoch, from around 13 to 6 million years ago, spanning from Europe to China.

Taxonomy

The placement of ''Miotragocerus'' is disputed. Some studies have considered it a member of the living antelope tribe

Boselaphini Boselaphini is a tribe (biology), tribe of Bovinae, bovines. It contains only two extant taxon, extant genus, genera, each with a single extant species. Description The Boselaphini or four-horned antelope tribe are the last survivors of a form v ...

, with others have placed it in the extinct tribe

Tragoportacini Tragoportacini is a tribe of extinct bovines that first appeared during the Late Miocene and persisted into the Early Pliocene. Classification Tragoportacini is a tribe of Bovinae, closely related to Boselaphini, a tribe consisting of the ext ...

. A 2021 phylogenetic analysis considered it to be a basal member of the tribe

Bovini The tribe Bovini or wild cattle are medium to massive bovines that are native to Eurasia, North America, and Africa. These include the enigmatic, antelope-like saola, the African and Asiatic buffaloes, and a clade that consists of bison and the ...

, and the closest known relative to the possibly extinct

saola The saola (''Pseudoryx nghetinhensis''), also called spindlehorn, Asian unicorn, or infrequently, Vu Quang bovid, is a forest-dwelling bovid native to the Annamite Range in Vietnam and Laos. It was described in 1993 following a discovery of ...

(''Pseudoryx'').

Description

''M. gluten'' possessed teeth that were

brachydont The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone tooth ...

to sub-hypsodont in their morphology.

Ecology

Dental microwear of ''Miotragocerus gaudryi'' from the Late Miocene of Bulgaria suggests that it was a leaf browser.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15041548 Fossil taxa described in 1928 Extinct mammals of Europe Boselaphini