Myotragus

Myotragus (Neo-Latin, derived from the Greek: μῦς, τράγος "mouse-goat") is an extinct genus of goat-antelope in the tribe Caprini which lived on the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Menorca in the western Mediterranean until its extinction around 4,300 years ago. The fossil record of Myotragus on the Balearic Islands extends over 5 million years back to the early Pliocene on Mallorca, thought to have arrived from the European mainland after the evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis at the end of the Miocene epoch (around 5.96-5.33 million years ago). Following the refilling of the Mediterranean at the beginning of the Pliocene, the Balearic Islands remained strongly isolated, allowing the evolution of Myotragus to occur over the next 5.3 million years with little outside influence.

Myotragus is represented by six sequential chronospecies showing progressive morphological change, including a reduction in body size, over the course of over 5 million years of evolution in isolation on the Balearics. The youngest and best-known species, M. balearicus, is noted for a number of unusual morphological adaptations, including shortened legs with stiffened feet, forward facing eyes suggestive of binocular vision, a reduced number of teeth as well as an evergrowing lower incisor, and a relatively long lifespan, which developed in an unusual ecosystem where only a few other mammal species were present, terrestrial predators were absent, and Myotragus functioned as the only major herbivore. M. balearicus became extinct when humans arrived in the Balearic Islands during the 3rd millennium BC (at minimum around 2282 BC), along with the large shrew Nesiotites and the giant dormouse Hypnomys, the only other terrestrial mammals native to the islands.

Early genetic research suggested that it was closely related to sheep of the genus Ovis; however, more recent research has indicated that its closest living relative is the takin (Budorcas taxicolor).