Megalotragus
Encyclopedia
Megalotragus is a genus
of very large extinct African alcelaphines from the Pliocene
and Pleistocene
. It resembled modern hartebeest
s, but differed in larger body size, it includes the largest bovid
s in the tribe Alcelaphini, reaching a shoulder height of 1,4 m. Megalotragus disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of very large extinct African alcelaphines from the Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
and Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
. It resembled modern hartebeest
Hartebeest
The hartebeest is a grassland antelope found in West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. It is one of the three species classified in the genus Alcelaphus....
s, but differed in larger body size, it includes the largest bovid
Bovid
A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed ruminant mammal at least the males of which bear characteristic unbranching horns covered in a permanent sheath of keratin....
s in the tribe Alcelaphini, reaching a shoulder height of 1,4 m. Megalotragus disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene.
- Alan Turner & Mauricio Anton: Evolving Eden. An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large-Mammal Fauna. Columbia University Press, New York, 2004. ISBN 0-231-11944-5