parent_taxon megalotragus
Quaternary is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy ( ICS ). It follows the ___MASK73___ Period and spans from 2 . 588 ± 0 . 005 million years ago to the present . The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs : the Pleistocene ( 2 . 588 million years ago to 11 . 7 thousand years ago ) and the Holocene ( 11 . 7 thousand years ago to today ). The informal term " Late Quaternary " refers to the past 0 . 5  1 . 0 million years . A genus ( genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology . In the hierarchy of biological classification , genus comes above species and below family . In binomial nomenclature , the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus . The hartebeest (" Alcelaphus buselaphus "), also known as kongoni , is an African antelope , first described by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766 . Eight subspecies have been described , including two sometimes considered to be independent species . A large antelope , the hartebeest stands just over at the shoulder , and has a typical head - and - body length of . The weight ranges from . It has a particularly elongated forehead and oddly shaped horns , short neck , and pointed ears . Its legs , which often have black markings , are unusually long . The coat is generally short and shiny . Coat colour varies by the subspecies , from the sandy brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of the Swayne ' s hartebeest . Both sexes of all subspecies have horns , with those of females being more slender . Horns can reach lengths of . Apart from its long face , the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes . The ___MASK73___ is a geologic period and system that spans 20 . 45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( ___MASK48___ ) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period ___MASK48___ . The ___MASK73___ is sub - divided into two epochs , the earlier Miocene and the later Pliocene . Some geologists assert that the ___MASK73___ cannot be clearly delineated from the modern geological period , the Quaternary . Megalotragus was a genus of very large extinct African alcelaphines that occurred from the Pliocene to early Holocene . It resembled modern hartebeests , but differed in larger body size , it includes the largest bovids in the tribe Alcelaphini , reaching a shoulder height of 1 . 4 m ( 4 . 6 ft ) . The genus consists of three species of which Megalotragus priscus survived until the early Holocene 7 . 500 C14yBP . The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the ___MASK73___ Period and extends from about ( Ma ). The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell . Its name comes from the Greek words (',  less ) and (',  new ) and means " less recent " because it has 18 % fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene . The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch . In biology , an organism is any contiguous living system , such as an ___MASK8___ , plant , fungus , archaeon , or bacterium . All known types of organisms are capable of some degree of response to stimuli , reproduction , growth and development and homeostasis . An organism consists of one or more cells ; when it has one cell it is known as a unicellular organism ; and when it has more than one it is known as a multicellular organism . Most unicellular organisms are of microscopic scale and are thus loosely described as microorganisms . Humans are multicellular organisms composed of many trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs . The Holocene is the geological epoch that began after the Pleistocene at approximately 11 , 700 years before present . The term " Recent " ( usually capitalised ) has often been used as an exact synonym of " Holocene ", although this usage is discouraged in 21st - century science . The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period . Its name comes from the Ancient Greek words (" holos ", whole or entire ) and (" kainos ", new ), meaning " entirely recent ". It has been identified with the current warm period , known as MIS 1 , and can be considered an interglacial in the current ice age based on that evidence . The Pliocene ( also Pleiocene ) Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5 . 333 million to 2 . 58 million years BP . It is the second and youngest epoch of the ___MASK73___ Period in the Cenozoic Era . The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch . Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale , which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene , the Pliocene also included the Gelasian stage , which lasted from 2 . 588 to 1 . 806 million years ago , and is now included in the Pleistocene . Binomial nomenclature ( also called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature ) is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts , both of which use Latin grammatical forms , although they can be based on words from other languages . Such a name is called a binomial name ( which may be shortened to just " binomial "), a binomen or a scientific name ; more informally it is also called a Latin name . The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs ; the second part identifies the species within the genus . For example , humans belong to the genus " ___MASK10___ " and within this genus to the species " ___MASK10___ sapiens ". The " formal " introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus , effectively beginning with his work " Species Plantarum " in 1753 . But Gaspard Bauhin , in as early as 1623 , had introduced in his book " Pinax theatri botanici " ( English , " Illustrated exposition of plants ") many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus . An antelope is a member of a number of even - toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia . Antelopes comprise a wastebasket taxon ( miscellaneous group ) within the family ___MASK2___ , encompassing those Old World species that are not cattle , sheep , buffalo , bison , or goats . A group of antelope is called a herd .