Blue wildebeest is placed in the family Bovidae, ruminant animals with cloven hooves. The generic name "Connochaetes" derives from the Greek words κόννος, kónnos, "beard", and χαίτη, khaítē, "flowing hair", "mane". The specific name "taurinus" originates from the Greek word "tauros", which means a bull or bullock. The common name "blue wildebeest" refers to the conspicuous, silvery-blue sheen of the coat, while the alternative name "gnu" originates from the name for these animals used by the Khokloi people, a native pastoralist people of southwestern Africa. Though the blue and black wildebeest are currently classified in the same genus, the latter was previously
Blue wildebeest acrocentric. Metaphases were studied in the male's chromosomes, and very large submetacentric chromosomes were found there, as well, similar to those in the female both in size and morphology. the rest were acrocentric. The X chromosome is a large acrocentric, while the Y chromosome is a minute one. This species of wildebeest seems to have evolved around 2.5 million years ago. The black wildebeest is believed to have diverged from the blue wildebeest to become a distinct species around a million years ago, in the mid- to late Pleistocene. Fossil evidence suggests that blue wildebeest were quite common in the