Bubalus

Bubalus
Domestic water buffalo in Thailand
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Bovinae
Genus: Bubalus
C. H. Smith, 1827
Species

Bubalus arnee
Bubalus depressicornis
Bubalus quarlesi
Bubalus mindorensis
Bubalus bubalis
Bubalus cebuensis

Bubalus is a genus of bovines that was first described by Charles Hamilton Smith in 1827. This genus comprises the following living species:[1]

The nomenclature and classification of domestic animals as species, subspecies, races or breeds has been discussed controversially for many years and was inconsistent between authors.[2] Assessors of the Food and Agriculture Organisation consider domestic water buffalo populations as breeds.[3]

Characteristics

Smith described Bubalus (from Greek βούβαλος, boúbalos) as low in proportion to the bulk with very solid limbs, a small dewlap and a long, slender tail; the head is large and the forehead narrow, very strong and convex; the eyes are large, and the ears mostly funnel-shaped; horns are lying flat or bending laterally with a certain direction to the rear; the female udder has four mammae.[4] Lydekker added that the line of back is nearly straight with 13 pairs of ribs; the tail is tufted and reaching about to the hocks; the horns are more or less markedly triangular for the greater part of their length and situated low down on the skull; the muzzle is broad, and the hair sparse in adults.[5]

Fossil species

Bubalus murrensis horns

The following extinct fossil species were described:

Valid names

The 2013 checklist of the Catalogue of Life lists as "accepted" five species binomina in the genus Bubalus:

Bubalus arnee is not listed.[10]

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System lists the same five species binomina as valid; it also lists six sub-species of Bubalus bubalis:[11]

The specific epithet bubalus

Species in a number of genera have bubalus as specific epithet. They include:[10]

References

  1. ↑ Groves, C.; Grubb, P. (2011). Ungulate Taxonomy. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 1421400936.
  2. ↑ Gentry, A. Clutton-Brock, J., Groves, C. P. (2004). The naming of wild animal species and their domestic derivatives. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 645–651.
  3. ↑ FAO (2013). Breeds from species: Buffalo. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome.
  4. ↑ Hamilton Smith, C. (1827). Bubalus. In: Griffith, E. (ed.) The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. Class Mammalia, Volume 5. London: Geo. B. Whittaker.
  5. ↑ Lydekker, R. 1913. Catalogue of the ungulate mammals in the British Museum (Natural History). London: British Museum (Natural History).
  6. ↑ Croft, D. A., Heaney, L. R., Flynn, J. J., Bautista, A. P. (2006). Fossil remains of a new, diminutive Bubalus (Artiodactyla: Bovidae: Bovini) from Cebu island, Philippines. Journal of Mammalogy 87(5): 1037–1051.
  7. ↑ Hopwood, A. T. (1925). A new species of buffalo from the Pleistocene of China. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 9, Vol. XVI: 238–239.
  8. ↑ Schreiber, H. D., Munk, W. (2002). A skull fragment of Bubalus murrensis (Berckhemer, 1927) (Mammalia, Bovinae) from the Pleistocene of Bruchsal-Buchenau (NE-Karlsruhe, SW-Germany). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie (12): 737–748.
  9. ↑ http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=162371.
  10. 1 2 Roskov Y., Kunze T., Paglinawan L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Culham A., Bailly N., Kirk P., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Hernandez F., De Wever A., eds (2013). Bubalus. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2013 Annual Checklist. Reading, UK.
  11. ↑ ITIS Results of: Search in every Kingdom for Scientific Name containing 'Bubalus'. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed january 2014.

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Buffalo (animal).
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