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GENUS Capra
Author: | Linnaeus, 1758. | Citation: | Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1: 68. | Type Species: | Capra hircus Linnaeus, 1758. | Comments: | Reviewed by Coutourier (1962). Includes Orthaegoceros; see Heptner et al. (1961:593). Some authors have included Ammotragus and Ovis; see Ansell (1972:70) and Van Gelder (1977b). However, most authors have not followed this arrangement; see Gray and Simpson (1980), Gromov and Baranova (1981), Hall (1981), and Corbet and Hill (1991). There is no consensus concerning the number of species to be recognized in this genus; some would recognize only two (hircus and falconeri; see Haltenorth, 1963), while others would recognize up to nine. Heptner et al. (1961) are followed here except that only one species of Tur is recognised. Suggested divisions within the genus according to Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) are C. caucasica or Hilzheimeria group, C. falconeri or Orthaegoceros group, C. hircus or nominate Capra group, C. ibex or Ibex group (including also nubiana, sibirica and walie as subspecies, as well as "C. ibex severtzovi"), and C. pyrenaica or Turocapra group. Systematics of the genus has been inferred from mtDNA sequences. Hassanin et al. (1998) suggested the following tree: (C. sibirica, Hemitragus jemlahicus) ((C. nubiana) ((C. hircus, C. falconeri) ((C. caucasica) (C. cylindricornis, C. aegagrus)))). Manceau et al (1999a) concluded that C. aegagrus and C. ibex sensu lato were polyphyletic, that C. cylindricornis and C. caucasica were distinct, though they did not state whether their material included specimens of the intermediate severtzovi, and that C. pyrenaica was allied to C. ibex. From studies of fossil material, Crégut-Bonnoure (1992) concluded that there were two lineages in late Pleistocene Europe, the ibex lineage, and the caucasica-cylindricornis-pyrenaica lineage. |
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