Beatragus

{{Short description|Genus of mammals}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Pliocene - Recent

| image = Hirola head with sub-orbital glands.jpg

| image_caption = Hirola (Beatragus hunteri)

| taxon = Beatragus

| authority = Heller, 1912

| type_species = Beatragus hunteri

| type_species_authority = Sclater, 1889

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision_ref = {{cite web |title=Beatragus |url=https://www.biolib.cz/en/taxon/id1092660/ |website=Biolib}}

| subdivision =

}}

Beatragus is a genus of alcelaphine antelope. The hirola (Beatragus hunteri) is the only living representative, but a couple of extinct species are known, all from Africa.{{cite book |last1=Werdelin |first1=Lars |last2=Sanders |first2=William Joseph |title=Cenozoic Mammals of Africa |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520257214 |page=782}}

The hirola and the larger Beatragus antiquus may together represent different phases of a chronospecies; the living hirola probably declined in size as a result of an ecologically impoverished landscape.{{cite book |last1=Kingdon |first1=Jonathan |title=Mammals of Africa: Volume VI Hippopotamuses, Pigs, Deer, Giraffe and Bovids |date=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781408189955 |page=490}}

References