The Hewitt's red rock hare (''Pronolagus saundersiae'') is a species of mammal in the family

Leporidae Leporidae is the family of rabbits and hares, containing over 60 species of extant mammals in all. The Latin word ''Leporidae'' means "those that resemble ''lepus''" (hare). Together with the pikas, the Leporidae constitute the mammalian order ...

. It had previously been classified as a subspecies of ''

Pronolagus rupestris Smith's red rockhare, Smith's red rock hare or Smith's red rock rabbit (''Pronolagus rupestris'') is a species of mammal in the family Leporidae (rabbits and hares), and is the smallest member of the genus ''Pronolagus''. The upperparts and gula ...

'', but is now regarded as its own species due to differences in

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and genetic differences in

cytochrome b Cytochrome b within both molecular and cell biology, is a protein found in the mitochondria of eukaryotic cells. It functions as part of the electron transport chain and is the main subunit of transmembrane cytochrome bc1 and b6f complexes. F ...

, and 12S rRNA.

Taxonomic history

This species was named by John Hewitt (1880–1961), who was the director of the

Albany Museum, South Africa The Albany Museum, South Africa is situated in Grahamstown in South Africa, is affiliated to Rhodes University and dates back to 1855,Chinsamy, Anusuya. (1997). "Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa." ''Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs''. Edited by ...

. Hewitt originally described this taxon as a subspecies of '' Pronolagus crassicaudatus'' in his 1927 description. Its type locality was

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

. He described this taxon based and skulls from Albany district, collected by Enid Saunders and Frank Bowker; the species is named after Saunders. It was later classified as a subspecies of ''

'' by various zoologists, including Ellerman, Morrison-Scott and Hayman, as well as Hoffman and Smith for the third edition of ''

Mammal Species of the World ''Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference'' is a standard reference work in mammalogy giving descriptions and bibliographic data for the known species of mammals. It is now in its third edition, published in late 2005, ...

''. Works which list it as its own species include: the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, ''

Mammals of Africa ''Mammals of Africa'' is a book series of six volumes from Bloomsbury Publishing. Published in 2013 and edited by Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Thomas Butynski, Michael Hoffmann, Meredith Happold and Jan Kalina, it describes every species of A ...

'', and

Jonathan Kingdon Jonathan Kingdon (born 1935 in Tanzania) is a zoologist, science author, and artist; a research associate at the University of Oxford. He focuses on taxonomic illustration and evolution of the mammals of Africa. He is a contributor to The Oxford B ...

's field guide.

Taxonomic history

References

Works cited

Further reading