Bovidae

Abstract

Substantial revisions are made to the account of the Bovidae of the Laetolil Beds and the Upper Ndolanya Beds given in Gentry (1987). Both beds have 17 or 18 species with a wide range of tribal affiliations. The bovids of the Laetolil Beds are unlike those in the “Plio-Pleistocene” faunas of Olduvai Gorge and the Shungura and Koobi Fora Formations. Some species are primitive, others are divergently specialized. Reduncini may well be totally absent, and a few teeth of a larger Cephalophus represent a rarely fossilized tribe. A little-advanced Hippotragus is more abundant than in later faunas. One or two links can be discerned between the bovids in the Upper Ndolanya Beds and those in the Laetolil Beds, but the differences are more striking. There are signs of a “Plio-Pleistocene” fauna being in place, and some of its species reach a large size. A new species of Aepyceros is described from the Laetolil Beds and of an alcelaphine from the Upper Ndolanya Beds.