Bovidae

A multi-calibrated mitochondrial phylogeny of extant Bovidae (Artiodactyla, Ruminantia) and the importance of the fossil record to systematics

“…The 8.8–6.4 Ma divergence between these two arid-adapted species might be interpreted as evidence for the late Miocene presence of arid corridors linking the Somali and South West arid zones, much as has been proposed for times in the Pliocene and Pleistocene [108]. The problem with such a scenario is that the restriction of Antidorcas to southwestern Africa appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon — the genus is recorded from the late Pliocene of Chad [109] and from the late Pliocene to the Pleistocene in eastern Africa, up until 2.5 Ma or younger in the Afar [110,111], the early Pleistocene in the Turkana Basin [51,112], and the middle Pleistocene in northern Tanzania [50,51]. While no fossil record is known for the gerenuk [51], the wide range of Antidorcas throughout most of its history means Pliocene and Miocene phylogeographic inferences based on its modern day geographic range must be made with caution.…”

“…The age of divergence of the blackbuck lineage from the remaining African Antilopini might therefore be taken to indicate a dispersal event from Africa into southern Asia sometime around 7.4–5.2 Ma. Critically missing from the phylogeny, however, is a large number of spiral-horned antilopin species from the late Miocene Greco-Iranian region, specifically Prostrepsiceros spp., from which the blackbuck may be descended [51,114], and which indicate the blackbuck’s origins are probably to be found in Eurasia.…”

“…Furthermore, there is evidence that faunal connections between southern Asia and Africa were stronger in the Miocene than today, becoming progressively weaker over time, and especially by the end of the late Miocene [115,118]. The disruption of gene flow between Bubalus and Syncerus at around 7 Ma might also be corroborated by evidence for the evolution of Bubalus from Proamphibos and Hemibos in southern Asia, and Syncerus from Ugandax in Africa since the middle Pliocene or earlier [25,51,119], and may therefore reflect the strengthening of dispersal barriers between what may once have been relatively permeable Afrotropical and Indo-Malayan faunal zones [115,120]. These hypotheses would of course benefit from further paleontological investigation, particularly of the spotty late Miocene African record.…”

“…While covering large parts of the bovid tree, there are conspicuous areas with no calibrations, namely Cephalophini, Antilopini, and Caprini. Cephalophini have nearly no fossil record at all [51]. Antilopini and Caprini on the other hand have a rich fossil record, but there is much ambiguity in the phylogenetic determination of most of the material.…”

Late Pleistocene artefacts and fauna from Rusinga and Mfangano islands, Lake Victoria, Kenya

“…), the giant buffalo (Syncerus antiquus), a small, unnamed, extremely hypsodont alcelaphine best known also from Lukenya Hill (Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez 1991;Marean 1992) and the medium-sized alcelaphine Rusingoryx atopocranion (Pickford and Thomas 1984;Faith et al 2011) (Table 1). We follow Gentry (2010) in assigning the extinct giant buffalo to Syncerus rather than Pelorovis (see also Klein 1994, 731). The extinct bovids may have interacted in an arid-adapted grazing succession (Faith et al 2011), similar to the grazing succession observed in the modern Serengeti (Bell 1971).…”