| Cebu tamaraw Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
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 (about 2 ft 6 in) and weighed about 150 to 160 kg (around 300 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.