''Hippotragus gigas'' is an extinct species of antelope known from the

Plio-Pleistocene The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5&nb ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Taxonomy

''Hippotragus gigas'' was discovered by Louis Leakey in 1965, who described it as "a ''

Hippotragus ''Hippotragus'' is a genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and ...

'' of gigantic proportions". Fossils were first found in Bed II of the

Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-si ...

in eastern Africa, and have also been found at sites in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Description

Based on molar size, this species was slightly larger than its living relatives and would have weighed around . In addition to larger size, the molars can be distinguished by their rounded cusps, large basal pillars, rounded ribs and the large goat folds on lower molars. Its horn cores were also less mediolaterally compressed than its relatives. ''H. gigas'' also had a reduced premolar row compared to living ''

'' species. This is a derived trait for the genus, which suggests that the living species are not descended from ''H. gigas''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q108402788 Prehistoric even-toed ungulates Pliocene even-toed ungulates Pleistocene even-toed ungulates Prehistoric bovids Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Africa