Muskox

Open encyclopedia reference

The muskox (Ovibos moschatus) is a hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae. Native to the Arctic, it is noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males during the seasonal rut, from which its name derives. This musky odor has the effect of attracting females during mating season. Its Inuktitut name umingmak translates to "the bearded one".

Its Woods Cree names mâthi-môs and mâthi-mostos translate to "ugly moose" and "ugly bison", respectively. Muskoxen are found primarily in Greenland, the Canadian Arctic of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as Alaska. They were formerly present in Eurasia, with their youngest natural records in the region dating to around 2,700 years ago. There are reintroduced populations in the U.S. state of Alaska, the Canadian territory of Yukon, and Siberia, and an introduced population in Norway, part of which emigrated to Sweden, where a small population now lives.

Wikipedia contributors, Muskox; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T01:20:39.493654+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Ovibos moschatus (Zimmermann, 1780)

Name authority

(Zimmermann, 1780)

Common name

Muskox

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Artiodactyla

Family

Bovidae

Genus

Ovibos

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. tribeCaprini Gray, 1821
15. genusOvibos Blainville, 1816
16. speciesOvibos moschatus (Zimmermann, 1780)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 166 records assigned to Bovidae.

Names & synonyms

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

Documented distribution

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

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=180708 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. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

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:4B9SQ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.