Abstract

Combined-data analyses, also termed total evidence analyses, have proven to be beneficial for phylogeny reconstructions for a range of taxa. For Bovidae, the most diverse clade of ruminants (Artiodactyla, Mammalia), such an analysis was last performed a decade ago. Since then, the range of possible analysis techniques has expanded, now including model-based Bayesian inference that can also be used to incorporate non-molecular data. Furthermore, the possibility of making morphological data widely accessible online, providing detailed information on character states via photographs, facilitates the use and re-use of this type of data. This study presents a data set of 88 cranial, 19 soft-tissue, and 27 behavioural characters, sampled from 58 bovid species. These data are analysed in a simultaneous analysis with molecular data from nine genes (four mitochondrial and five nuclear markers), sampled for 57 bovid species. A few morphological and behavioural characters are identified as apomorphies of bovid taxa. Despite the fact that the majority of characters show homoplasies and cannot unambiguously be optimized on the phylogenetic tree, they allow for inferring the phylogenetic position of two fossil bovid species: †Turcoceros grangeri and †Gazella lydekkeri. The study is designed as a starting point for further combined data analyses of bovids or ruminants in general.