Megalotragus

Megalotragus
Megalotragus
Temporal range: Pliocene - late Pleistocene
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Alcelaphinae
Tribe: Alcelaphini
Genus: Megalotragus
van Hoepen, 1932
Species
  • M. kattwinkeli (type)
  • M. priscus Broom, 1909
  • M. issaci

Megalotragus is a genus of very large extinct African alcelaphines from the Pliocene and Pleistocene. It resembled modern hartebeests, but differed in larger body size, it includes the largest bovids 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