CRANIAL ANATOMY AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP OF THE NEWLY DISCOVERED BOVID (PSEUDORYX NGHETINENSIS) IN THE ANNAMITIC CORDILLERA IN VIETNAM

The morphological study of the skull and dentition of the newly discovered bovid, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, along the eastern slope of the annamitic cordillera in Vietnam, suggests a close relationship with the Asian Caprinae - serows and gorals - in spite of the primitiveness of the skull characters. Therefore our hypothesis is in contradiction with the conclusions drawn most recently by Vu Van Dung ed al. (1993 b) who relate the new bovid with the Bovinae and support a provisional placement among the Boselaphini. These two proposals are here compared with the results of a phylogenetic analysis program using parsimony (HENNIG 86 and PAUP) based on a data matrix of 114 characters in 15 species of living bovid, largely taken from the matrix constructed by Gentry (1992). As a result, the parsimony phylogenetic analysis definitely confirms that the new bovid is not related to the Bovinae, although no close relationship is clearly established with the serows-gorals here unexpectedly not preserved as a monophyletic group. However Pseudoryx nghetinhensis appears obviously linked with the Caprinae as their primitive sister-group. As a matter of face almost all characters which define the monophyly of the Caprinae are precisely retained in a primitive state in Pseudoryx nghetinhensis. Therefore one cannot exclude any close relationship with either of the Caprinae, in particular with the serowsgorals, a hypothesis which we still favour.