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NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

Eastern Thomson's Gazelle

Eudorcas thomsonii (Günther, 1884)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii), Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Named after British explorer Joseph Thomson, this is the most common type of gazelle in East Africa with numbers over 200,000. It's claimed to have top speeds up to 80–90 km/h (50–55 mph), making it the fourth-fastest land animal, after the cheetah (its main predator), pronghorn, and springbok.

Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii), Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Named after British explorer Joseph Thomson, this is the most common type of gazelle in East Africa with numbers over 200,000. It's claimed to have top speeds up to 80–90 km/h (50–55 mph), making it the fourth-fastest land animal, after the cheetah (its main predator), pronghorn, and springbok.

Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image source

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Open encyclopedia reference

Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is one of the best known species of gazelles. It is named after explorer Joseph Thomson and is sometimes referred to as a "tommie". It is considered by some to be a subspecies of the red-fronted gazelle and was formerly considered a member of the genus Gazella within the subgenus Eudorcas, before Eudorcas was elevated to genus status.

Thomson's gazelles can be found in numbers exceeding 200,000 in Africa and are recognized as the most common type of gazelle in East Africa. A small fast antelope, the Thomson's gazelle is said to have top speeds up to 80–90 km/h (50–55 mph). It is the fourth-fastest land animal, after the cheetah (its main predator), pronghorn, and springbok.

Wikipedia contributors, Thomson's gazelle; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:02:50.692699+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Eudorcas thomsonii (Günther, 1884)
Name authority
(Günther, 1884)
Common name
Eastern Thomson's Gazelle
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Artiodactyla
Family
Bovidae
Genus
Eudorcas
Extinction status
Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
  9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
  10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
  11. orderArtiodactyla Owen, 1848
  12. familyBovidae Gray, 1821
  13. subfamilyAntilopinae Gray, 1821
  14. tribeAntilopini Gray, 1821
  15. genusEudorcas Fitzinger, 1869
  16. speciesEudorcas thomsonii (Günther, 1884)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Eudorcas. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Mongalla GazelleEudorcas albonotata (Rothschild, 1903)BovidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
Red-fronted GazelleEudorcas rufifrons (Gray, 1846)BovidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant

Browse 166 records assigned to Bovidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Gazella thomsonii Günther, 1884 Günther, 1884synonym
Eudorcas thomsonii thomsonii (Günther, 1884) (Günther, 1884)synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Africa

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=898223 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3C2MF. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.