''Ugandax'' is an extinct genus of
bovine
Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship betwee ...
s in the subtribe
Bubalina
Bubalina is a subtribe of Bovini, wild cattle that includes the various species of true buffalo. Species include the African buffalo, the anoas, and the wild water buffalo (including the domesticated variant water buffalo). Buffaloes can be fo ...
that lived from the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
to the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
of Africa.
Cladistic
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...
analyses suggest ''Ugandax'' represents an ancestral form of the
African buffalo, ''Syncerus'',
and teeth assigned to ''Ugandax'' represent the earliest appearance of bovines in Africa.
References
Bovines
Prehistoric bovids
Miocene mammals of Africa
Pliocene mammals of Africa
Pleistocene mammals of Africa
Fossil taxa described in 1970
Prehistoric even-toed ungulate genera
{{Paleo-eventoedungulate-stub