Asiatic buffalo
| Asiatic buffalo | ||||||||||||
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Water buffalo ( Bubalus arnee ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bubalus | ||||||||||||
| CH Smith , 1827 |
The Asian buffalo ( Bubalus ) are a genus of cattle that is distributed across South and Southeast Asia in four species. Historically, it was distributed westward to the Middle East and northward to China, and in the last Ice Age it also included North Africa. Asiatic buffalos were brought to other continents by humans.
Only the water buffalo ( Bubalus arnee ) is widespread and well known. The remaining species of Asian buffalo are confined to small islands.
- Water buffalo ( Bubalus arnee ( Kerr , 1792))
- Tamarau ( Bubalus mindorensis Heude , 1888)
- Lowland anoa ( Bubalus depressicornis ( CH Smith , 1827))
- Mountain anoa ( Bubalus quarlesi ( Ouwens , 1910))
- the classification of the domestic water buffalo , formerly Bubalus bubalis, is controversial.
Extinct species
- † European water buffalo ( Bubalus murrensis )
- † Bubalus grovesi
- † Bubalus mephistopheles
- † Bubalus cebuensis
- † Bubalus palaeokerabau
The Tamarau occurs only on the Philippine island of Mindoro . Lowland and mountain anoa form the subgenus Anoa and are occasionally grouped together as one species. They are endemic to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and the small neighboring island of Buton . A species, the European water buffalo ( Bubalus murrensis ), also occurred in Europe during the Pleistocene .
The fossil anoa species Bubalus grovesi from southern Sulawesi was described in 2017 .
literature
- Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3rd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Roberto Rozzi: A new extinct dwarfed buffalo from Sulawesi and the evolution of the subgenus Anoa: An interdisciplinary perspective. In: Quaternary Science Reviews. Volume 157, 2017, pp. 188-205.