The red rock hares are the four species in the genus Pronolagus.[3][4] They are African lagomorphs of the family Leporidae.
Pronolagus | |
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Illustration of P. crassicaudatus from Geoffroy, 1832 | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Lagomorpha |
Family: | Leporidae |
Genus: | Pronolagus Lyon, 1904[1][2] |
Type species | |
Lepus crassicaudatus I. Geoffroy, 1832 | |
Species | |
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Taxonomic history
Species in this genus had previously been classified in the genus Lepus, as done by J. E. Gray,[5] or in Oryctolagus, as done by Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major.[6]
The genus Pronolagus was proposed by Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr. in 1904, based on a skeleton that had been labeled Lepus crassicaudatus I. Geoffroy, 1832.[2] Lyon later acknowledged the work of Oldfield Thomas and Harold Schwann, which argued that particular specimen belonged to a species they named Pronolagus ruddi Thomas and Schwann 1905;[7] he wrote that the type species "should stand as Pronolagus crassicaudatus Lyon (not Geoffroy) = Pronolagus ruddi Thomas and Schwann".[8]
P. ruddi is no longer regarded as its own species, but rather a subspecies of P. crassicaudatus.[9][1]
In the 1950s, John Ellerman and Terence Morrison-Scott classified Poelagus as a subgenus of Pronolagus.[10][9] B. G. Lundholm regarded P. randensis as a synonym of P. crassicaudatus.[11] Neither of these classifications received much support.[12]
Previously proposed species in this genus include:
- P. melanurus (Rüppell, 1834)[13] (Now a synonym of P. rupestris[4])
- P. ruddi Thomas & Schwann, 1905[7] (Now a synonym[4] or subspecies[3][1] of P. crassicaudatus)
- †P. intermedius Jameson, 1909[14]
- P. whitei Roberts, 1938[15] (Now a synonym[4] or subspecies[3][1] of P. randensis)
- P. caucinus Thomas, 1929[16] (Now a synonym[4] or subspecies[3][1] of P. randensis)
- P. barretti Roberts, 1949[17] (Now a synonym of P. saundersiae[4][3])
Extant species
This genus contains the following species:
Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
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![]() | Natal red rock hare | Pronolagus crassicaudatus I. Geoffroy, 1832 | southeastern provinces of South Africa (Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal), eastern Lesotho, Swaziland (Highveld and Lumbobo), and southern Mozambique (Maputo Province). |
![]() | Jameson's red rock hare | Pronolagus randensis Jameson, 1907 | Zimbabwe and Namibia |
![]() | Smith's red rock hare | Pronolagus rupestris A. Smith, 1834 | Kenya (Rift Valley), Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rhodesia, South Africa (Northern Cape, Free State, and North West), Tanzania and Zambia. |
![]() | Hewitt's red rock hare | Pronolagus saundersiae Hewitt, 1927 (used to be included in Pronolagus rupestris[12][18]). | South Africa |
Description
Some characteristics of animals in this genus include: the lack of an interparietal bone in adults, a mesopterygoid space which is narrower than the minimal length of the hard palate, short ears (63–106 millimetres (2+1⁄2–4+1⁄4 inches)), and the lack of a stripe along its jaw.[19]
Fossils
A fossil skull of an animal in this genus was found in South Africa; Henry Lyster Jameson named the species Pronolagus intermedius[a] as it was described as being intermediate between P. crassiacaudatus and P. ruddi.[14]
Genetics
All species in this genus have 21 pairs of chromosomes (2n = 42).[19][4] The karotype for P. rupestris has been published.[20][21] The Pronolagus chromosomes have undergone four fusions and one fission from the Lagomorpha ancestral state (2n=48), which resembled the karotype of Lepus.[22]
Notes
References
Further reading
- Allen, Glover M. (1939). "A Checklist of African Mammals". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy. 83: 280–282.
- Apps, Peter, ed. (2008). "Red Rock Rabbits". Smithers' Mammals of Southern Africa: A Field Guide (3rd ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 119–122. ISBN 978-1-86872-550-2.
- Bronner, G. N.; Hoffmann, M.; Taylor, P. J.; Chimimba, C. T.; Best, P. B.; Matthee, C. A.; Robinson, T. J. (2003). "A revised systematic checklist of the extant mammals of the southern African subregion". Durban Museum Novitates. 28 (1): 61. hdl:10520/AJA0012723X_1504.
- Kingdon, Jonathan (2015). "Rock-Hares Pronolagus". The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals: Second Edition (2nd ed.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 304–306. ISBN 978-1-4729-2531-2.