THE LONG-HORNED AFRICAN BUFFALO (PELOROVIS-ANTIQUUS) IS AN EXTINCT SPECIES

The African long-horned buffalo, Pelorovis antiquus, was once widespre ad in the savannas and grasslands of southern, eastern, and northern A frica. It apparently disappeared from southern and eastern Africa abou t 12,000 years ago and from northern Africa about 4000 years ago. Its extinction has been variously attributed to human predation, climatic change, or some combination of the two. Recently, Peters et al. (Late Quaternary extinction of ungulates in Sub-Saharan Africa: a reductioni st's approach, Journal of Archaeological Science 21, 17-28, 1994) argu ed that its demise has been exaggerated and that its postcranial anato my indicates it was simply a long-horned morph of the extant African b uffalo, Syncerus caffer. Both cranial and postcranial similarities to Syncerus can be used to suggest that P. antiquus should be removed fro m Pelorovis and reassigned to Syncerus, as Syncerus antiquus. However, its status as a distinct (and now extinct) buffalo species is demonst rated by its singular horns, by some dental differences from S. caffer , and above all, by its geographic overlap with S. caffer through much of the middle and late Quaternary, with no evidence for intermediate forms.