 The impala is the sole member of the genus Aepyceros and belongs to the family Bovidae . It was first described by German zoologist Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein in 1812 . In 1984 , palaeontologist Elisabeth Vrba opined that the impala is a sister taxon to the alcelaphines given its resemblance to the hartebeest . A 1999 phylogenetic study by Alexandre Hassanin ( of the National Centre for Scientific Research , Paris ) and colleagues , based on mitochondrial and nuclear analyses , showed that the impala forms a clade with the suni ( Neotragus moschatus ) . This clade is sister to another formed by the bay duiker ( Cephalophus dorsalis ) and the klipspringer ( Oreotragus oreotragus ) . An rRNA and β @-@ spectrin nuclear sequence analysis in 2003 also supported an association between Aepyceros and Neotragus . The following cladogram is based on the 1999 study : 
