The red rock hares are the four
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
in the genus ''Pronolagus''.
They are
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n
lagomorph
The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and the Ochotonidae (pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Ancient Greek ''lagos'' (Î»Î±Î³Ï ...
s of 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 ...
.
Taxonomic history
Species in this genus had previously been classified in the genus ''
Lepus
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...
'', as done by
J. E. Gray
John Edward Gray, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoology, zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray ...
,
or in ''
Oryctolagus'', as done by
Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major.
The genus ''Pronolagus'' was proposed by
Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr. in 1904, based on a skeleton that had been labeled ''Lepus crassicaudatus'' .
Lyon later acknowledged the work of
Oldfield Thomas and Harold Schwann, which argued that particular specimen belonged to a species they named ''Pronolagus ruddi'' ;
he wrote that the type species "should stand as ''Pronolagus crassicaudatus'' (not ) = ''Pronolagus ruddi'' ".
''P. ruddi'' is no longer regarded as its own species, but rather a subspecies of ''P. crassicaudatus''.
In the 1950s,
John Ellerman and
Terence Morrison-Scott classified ''
Poelagus'' as a subgenus of ''
Pronolagus''.
B. G. Lundholm regarded ''P. randensis'' as a synonym of ''P. crassicaudatus''.
Neither of these classifications received much support.
Previously proposed species in this genus include:
* ''P. melanurus''
(Now a synonym of ''P. rupestris''
)
* ''P. ruddi''
(Now a synonym
or subspecies
of ''P. crassicaudatus'')
* ''P. intermedius''
* ''P. whitei''
(Now a synonym
or subspecies
of ''P. randensis'')
* ''P. caucinus''
(Now a synonym
or subspecies
of ''P. randensis'')
* ''P. barretti''
(Now a synonym of ''P. saundersiae''
)
Extant species
This
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
contains the following species:
Description
Some characteristics of animals in this genus include: the lack of an
interparietal bone
An interparietal bone (os interparietale or Inca bone or ''os inca var.'') is a dermal bone situated between the parietal and supraoccipital. It is homologous to the postparietal bones of other animals.
In humans, it corresponds to the upper p ...
in adults, a mesopterygoid space which is narrower than the minimal length of the
hard palate
The hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate made up of two bones of the facial skeleton, located in the roof of the mouth. The bones are the palatine process of the maxilla and the horizontal plate of palatine bone. The hard palate spans t ...
, short ears (), and the lack of a stripe along its jaw.
Fossils
A fossil skull of an animal in this genus was found in South Africa;
Henry Lyster Jameson
Henry Paul William Lyster Jameson (1875, Louth – 26 February 1922, West Mersea) was a zoologist, who studied pearl-formation. He also made contributions to speleology and encouraged the study of psychology in adult education.
Life
H. Lyster Ja ...
named the species ''Pronolagus intermedius'' as it was described as being intermediate between ''P. crassiacaudatus'' and ''P. ruddi''.
Genetics
All species in this genus have 21 pairs of
chromosomes
A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...
(2n = 42).
The
karotype for ''P. rupestris'' has been published.
The ''Pronolagus'' chromosomes have undergone four fusions and one fission from the
Lagomorpha
The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and the Ochotonidae ( pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Ancient Greek ''lagos'' (λαγ ...
ancestral state (2n=48), which resembled the karotype of ''
Lepus
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...
''.
Notes
References
Further reading
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q685653
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot