Megalotragus

Megalotragus
Temporal range: Pliocene - early Holocene,
Megalotragus kattwinkeli skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Antilopinae
Tribe: Alcelaphini
Genus: Megalotragus
van Hoepen, 1932
Type species
Megalotragus kattwinkeli
Species
  • M. issaci Harris, 1991
  • M. kattwinkeli
  • M. priscus Broom, 1909

Megalotragus (from Greek mega (μέγα) 'great' and tragos (τράγος) 'goat') is an extinct genus of very large African alcelaphines that lived from the Pliocene to early Holocene. Its skull resembled that of modern hartebeests, but it differed in having a larger body size and wildebeest-like proportions. Megalotragus includes some of the largest bovid species in the subfamily Alcelaphinae, reaching a shoulder height of 1.4 m (4.6 ft). The genus consists of three species of which Megalotragus priscus survived until the early Holocene 7.500 C14yBP.