Beatragus antiquus, the ancient hirola, is an extinct species of alcelaphine antelope that lived in Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene.
| Beatragus antiquus Temporal range: Late Pliocene - Early Pleistocene
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|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Alcelaphinae |
| Genus: | Beatragus |
| Species: | †B. antiquus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Beatragus antiquus Leakey, 1965
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Discovery
editBeatragus antiquus was first described by Louis Leakey in 1965 from material discovered at the Olduvai Gorge (Beds I and II) in Tanzania.[1] Other remains dated slightly earlier have also been found in the Omo valley and possibly at Elandsfontein in South Africa.[2]
Description
editThe ancient hirola was larger than the modern day hirola, and the two together may represent a chronospecies.[2] Other differences with the hirola include horn cores diverging immediately from their bases, a lessening of distal divergence, more upright insertions in side view and wider and more convex frontals of the horn cores.[3]
Paleoecology
editIt lived in vast savannas alongside other alcelaphine antelopes, such as a small species of Damaliscus and Parmularius.[2] The ancient hirola probably declined as a result of diminished habitat preferences, and the modern species, with its smaller size and less energy demands, eventually evolved to cope with the new ecologically impoverished landscape.[4]
References
edit- ^ Leakey, L.S.B. (1965). Olduvai Gorge: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052105527X.
- ^ a b c Kingdon, Jonathan (1984). East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa, Volume 3, Part D: Bovids. University of Chicago Press. p. 477. ISBN 9780226437255.
- ^ Werdelin, Lars; Sanders, William Joseph (2010). Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press. p. 782. ISBN 9780520257214.
- ^ Kingdon, Jonathan (2014). Mammals of Africa: Volume VI Hippopotamuses, Pigs, Deer, Giraffe and Bovids. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 490. ISBN 9781408189955.