Protoryx enanus from MN-7 (European Faunal zone, Mammal Neogene 7 late-middle Miocene) is thought to represent the earliest occurrence of the Caprinae (Gentry and Heinzmann 1996; Köhler 1987). Gentry (1971) assigned Pachytragus from the late Miocene of Greece to Caprini, providing the earliest representative of the tribe (but see Gentry [1992] for discussion of the middle Miocene aegodont bovids). Questions about the subfamilial and tribal attribution of Protoryx and Pachytragus remain (see discussion in Gentry and Heinzmann 1996; Gentry 2000). Vrba and Schaller (2000) suggest that Pachytragus is ancestral to the Caprini and that the group Pantholops-Caprinae experienced rapid evolution during the late Miocene. Synapomorphies are difficult to find, but Gentry (2000) believes that living Caprinae, other than Caprini, may have had separate ancestries dating well back into the Miocene.
Tossunnoria (late Miocene; Tsaidam Basin, China; Bohlin 1937) may be the predecessor of Sivacapra (late Pliocene; Pinjor Formation, Siwaliks, Pakistan; Pilgrim 1939) possibly the predecessor of the extant and extinct forms of Hemitragus (Himalayan tahr), part of a goat lineage within Caprini. Early caprine taxa are relatively rare in China and differ from contemporary European taxa. There is little question that basal Caprini existed by the late Miocene. Unfortunately late Miocene, Pliocene, and early Pleistocene caprines are extremely rare in the fossil record of northeastern Asia and North America, rendering their evolutionary history poorly understood; any record is noteworthy.