Cebu tamaraw Temporal range: | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Bovidae |
Subfamily: | Bovinae |
Genus: | Bubalus |
Species: | †B. cebuensis |
Binomial name | |
†Bubalus cebuensis Croft, Heaney, Flynn, and Bautista, 2006 | |
The Cebu tamaraw (Bubalus cebuensis) is a fossil dwarf buffalo discovered in the Philippines, and first described in 2006.
The most distinctive feature of B. cebuensis was its small size. Large contemporary domestic water buffalo stand 2 m (roughly 6 ft) at the shoulder and can weigh up to 1 tonne (around 2,000 lb), B. cebuensis would have stood only 75 cm (6 ft, 7 in) and weighed about 150 to 160 kg (330 to 350 lb), smaller than another dwarf species B. mindorensis . [1] [2]
The fossil specimen is likely Pleistocene or Holocene in age. [1]
The fossil was discovered in a horizontal tunnel in soft karst around 50 m elevation in K-Hill near Balamban, Cebu Island, the Philippines, by mining engineer Michael Armas. [3] The fossil was donated to America's Field Museum, where it stayed unanalyzed for almost 50 years.