''Syncerus acoelotus'' is an extinct species of

bovid The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, the ...

closely related to the Cape buffalo. It lived during the

Late Pliocene Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

and

Early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...

. Fossils of this species were first found in the

Olduvai gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropology, paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human ev ...

back in 1978, and it was described several years later. ''S. acoelotus'' was larger, and probably ancestral to, its living relative.

References

Prehistoric bovids Pliocene even-toed ungulates Pleistocene even-toed ungulates Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Africa Prehistoric mammals of Africa {{paleo-eventoedungulate-stub Fossil taxa described in 1985