Tragoportax

It lived from the upper Miocene to the earliest Pliocene, and its fossils have been found in southeastern Europe, parts of Africa, and the Indian subcontinent.

Tragoportax was formerly considered a close relative of the extant nilgai, though more recent studies suggest that it, and several other Miocene "boselaphins", formed a tribe of their own.

The first of the specimens currently assigned to Tragoportax, three horn cores with parts of their skulls still attached, were discovered in Pikermi, Greece.

[1] A few years later, in 1861 Jean Albert Gaudry recognised that the Pikermi fossils were distinct enough from Capra to warrant a genus of their own.

[4] In 1937, Guy Ellcock Pilgrim coined the generic name Tragoportax, to include fossils recovered from the Sivalik Hills in Pakistan.

[8] In 1904, Max Schlosser named a second species of Tragoportax (then Tragocerus), T. rugosifrons, based on material recovered from Samos, Greece.

[3] Tragoportax has often been assigned to the tribe Boselaphini or subfamily Boselaphinae, alongside the modern nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus).

[3][5] However, Bibi et al. (2009) suggested that Boselaphinae as defined was probably non-monophyletic, and that Tragoportax and its relatives should form a separate tribe, Tragoportacini.

[7][12] Tragoportax fossils have been recovered from southeastern Europe, Libya, South Africa, and the Indian subcontinent.

[16] On the other hand, T. macedoniensis (if it is Tragoportax), however, likely inhabited more forested environments, as it possesses traits characteristic of forest-dwelling bovids, such as reductions in body and horn size.

[19] On the other hand, analysis of dental isotopes and microwear suggest that T. rugosifrons was a mixed feeder, eating both leaves and grasses.

[20] The evolution of browsing habits in Tragoportax may have been driven by increased competition from other grazing mammal clades, such as rhinocerotids and equids.

Upper jaw and mandibles of Tragoportax amalthea from Pikermi