New Hippotragini (Bovidae, Mammalia) from the late Miocene of Toros-Menalla (Chad)
Résumé
Until now, the pre-Pleistocene record of the bovid tribe Hippotragini was rather poor. We describe here two new taxa from the late Miocene of Toros-Menalla in northern Chad, which yielded the earliest known hominid, Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Tchadotragus sudrei n.gen. n.sp. is known by complete skulls and numerous horn-cores. It has typical hippotragine features such as long slender, curved horn-cores, weak cranial flexure, large frontal sinus, and hippotragine-like dentition, and is here taken as a basal member of the tribe, branching before the divergence between Oryx-Praedamalis and Hippotragus s.l. Saheloryx solidus n.gen. n.sp. is less well-known; it differs mainly by the lack of sinus in the frontal and horn-cores, shorter horn-cores, and rounded brain-case, but it shares with Tchadotragus a large number of features that prompt us to classify it also at the base of the hippotragine tree, perhaps as the sister-taxon of Tchadotragus. No other African taxon looks like Saheloryx, and the only one similar to Tchadotragus is from Sahabi, Libya. The abundance of hippotragines sharply distinguishes Toros-Menalla from the East African late Miocene bovid faunas.
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