Maxwell's duiker
| Maxwell's duiker | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Genus: | Philantomba |
| Species: | P. maxwellii |
| Binomial name | |
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Philantomba maxwellii C. H. Smith, 1827 |
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Maxwell's duiker (Philantomba maxwellii) is a small antelope found in western Africa.
Maxwell's duiker
The scientific name of Maxwell's duiker is Philantomba maxwelli. It is classified in the genus Philantomba along with the blue duiker (P. monticola) and Walter's duiker (P. walteri). It was first described by English naturalist Charles Hamilton Smith in 1827. The species is sometimes treated as a species of Cephalophus, another genus of duikers, although Philantomba has been recognised as a genus by zoologists such as Peter Grubb and Colin Groves.Theodor Haltenorth has considered this species to be a race of the blue duiker due to their identical features.
In 2012, Anne R. Johnston (of the University of Orleans) and colleagues constructed a cladogram of the subfamily Cephalophinae (duiker), that includes the three genera Cephalophus, Philantomba and Sylvicapra, based on analysis. Philantomba was shown to be monophyletic. It is sister to the rest of the subfamily, from which it diverged nearly 8.73 million years ago (in the late Miocene). Maxwell's duiker split from blue duiker 2.68 to 5.31 million years ago. This cladogram, however, did not include the newly discovered Walter's duiker. Marc Colyn (of the University of Rennes 1) and colleagues, who had discovered this species in 2010, had prepared a similar cladogram that included it.
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