''Tragelaphus'' is a

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 ...

of medium-to-large-sized spiral-

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

s. It contains several species of

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 ...

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 sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

. Elands, including the

common eland The common eland (''Taurotragus oryx''), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a large savannah and plains antelope found in East Africa, East and Southern Africa. An adult male is around tall at the shoulder and can weigh up ...

(''Taurotragus oryx''), are embedded within this genus, meaning that ''Taurotragus'' must be subsumed into ''Tragelaphus'' to avoid

paraphyly Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

. 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''. ''Strepsiceros'' is a generic

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

. Genus ''Boocercus'' formerly contained ''T. eurycerus''. The name "Tragelaphus" comes from the mythical tragelaph.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

''Tragelaphus'' is a genus in the tribe

Tragelaphini The tribe Tragelaphini (referred to by some authors as "Strepsicerotini"), or the spiral-horned antelopes, are bovines that are endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. These include the bushbucks, kudus, and the elands. The scientific name is in referen ...

and the family

Bovidae 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 ...

. The genus authority is French zoologist

Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (; 12 September 1777 – 1 May 1850) was a French zoologist and anatomist. Life Blainville was born at Arques-la-Bataille, Arques, near Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, Dieppe. As a young man, he went to Paris to study a ...

, 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: 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 of all kno ...

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 ''Taurotragus'' is a genus of giant antelopes of the African savanna, commonly known as elands. It contains two species: the common eland ''T. oryx'' and the giant eland ''T. derbianus''. Taxonomy ''Taurotragus'' is a Genus (biology), genus ...

'' (elands) towards the end of the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

References

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