Goat-antelope
| Caprinae Temporal range: Late Miocene–Recent |
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|---|---|
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| Stone sheep (Ovis dalli stonei) in British Columbia, 2009 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: |
Caprinae Gray, 1821 |
| Genera | |
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Nemorhaedus |
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Nemorhaedus
Rupicapra
Oreamnos
Budorcas
Ovibos
Hemitragus
Ammotragus
Pseudois
Capra
Ovis
and see text
Subfamily Caprinae is part of the ruminant family Bovidae, consisting of mostly medium-sized bovids. A member of this subfamily is called a caprine. A member is also sometimes referred to as a goat-antelope, however, this term "goat-antelope" does not mean that these animals are true antelopes: a true antelope is a bovid with a cervid-like or antilocaprid-like morphology.
Within this subfamily Caprinae, a prominent tribe Caprini includes sheep, goat, and ibex.
Some earlier taxonomies considered Caprinae a separate family called Capridae (whence a caprid), but now it is usually considered a subfamily within the Bovidae family, whence a caprine is a kind of bovid.
Although most goat-antelopes are gregarious and have fairly stocky builds, they diverge in many other ways – the muskox (Ovibos moschatus) is adapted to the extreme cold of the tundra; the Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) of North America is specialised for very rugged terrain; the urial (Ovis orientalis) occupies a largely infertile area from Kashmir to Iran, including much desert country. The European mouflon (Ovis musimon) is thought to be the ancestor of the modern domestic sheep (Ovis aries).
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