Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Cladus: Synapsida
Cladus: Eupelycosauria
Cladus: Sphenacodontia
Cladus: Sphenacodontoidea
Cladus: Therapsida
Cladus: Theriodontia
Cladus: Cynodontia
Cladus: Eucynodontia
Cladus: Probainognathia
Cladus: Prozostrodontia
Cladus: Mammaliaformes
Classis: Mammalia
Subclassis: Trechnotheria
Infraclassis: Zatheria
Supercohors: Theria
Cohors: Eutheria
Infraclassis: Placentalia
Cladus: Boreoeutheria
Superordo: Euarchontoglires
Ordo: Lagomorpha
Familia: Leporidae
Genus: Pronolagus
Species: P. crassicaudatus - P. randensis - P. rupestris
Name
Pronolagus Lyon, 1904
References
Pronolagus in Mammal Species of the World.
Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn M. (Editors) 2005. Mammal Species of the World – A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Third edition. ISBN 0-8018-8221-4.
Vernacular names
English: Rock Hares
The red rock hares are the four species in the genus Pronolagus.[3][4] They are African lagomorphs of the family Leporidae.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
Jameson's paper spelled the name of the new species as Ronolagus intermedius, but elsewhere described it as being in the genus Pronolagus.
References
Hoffman, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Genus Pronolagus". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 206–207. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
Lyon, Marcus Ward Jr. (1903) [1904]. "Classification of the Hares and their Allies". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 45 (1456): 416–420.
Collins, K. (2005). "Order Lagomorpha". In Skinner, John D.; Chimimba, Christian T. (eds.). The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 73. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107340992.013.
Happold, D. C. D. (2013). "Genus Pronolagus Hewitt's Red Rock-hare". In Happold, David C. D. (ed.). Rodents, Hares and Rabbits. Mammals of Africa. Vol. 3. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 712–717. ISBN 978-1-4081-8992-4.
Gray, J. E. (1867). "Notes on the Skulls of Hares (Leporidæ) and Picas (Lagomyidæ) in the British Museum". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 3rd ser. 20 (117): 223. doi:10.1080/00222936708694118.
Forsyth Major, C. I. (1899). "On Fossil and Recent Lagomorpha". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 2nd Series: Zoology. 7 (9): 514. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1899.tb002021.x.
Thomas, Oldfield; Schwann, Harold (1905). "The Rudd Exploration of South Africa.——III. List of the Mammals obtained by Mr. Grant in Zululand". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1): 272–275.
Lyon, Marcus W. Jr. (1906). "Type of the Genus Pronolagus". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 19: 95.
Ellerman, J. R.; Morrison-Scott, T. C. S.; Hayman, R. W. (1953). "Lagomorpha — Leporidae". Southern African Mammals 1758 to 1951: A Reclassification. London: Tonbridge. pp. 219–222.
Ellerman, J. R.; Morrison-Scott, T. C. S. (1951). "Family Leporidae". Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian Mammals 1758 to 1946. London. pp. 420, 424–425.
Lundholm, B. G. (1954). "Descriptions of New Mammals". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 22 (3): 293–294. hdl:10520/AJA00411752_408.
Meester, J. A. J.; Rautenbach, I. L.; Dippenaar, N. J.; Baker, C. M. (1986). "Order Lagomorpha". Classification of Southern African Mammals. Transvaal Museum Monographs. Vol. 5. Transvaal Museum. pp. 298–307. hdl:10520/AJA090799001_112. ISBN 0907990061.
Rüppell, Eduard (1845). "Beschreibung mehrerer neuer Säugethiere, in der zoologischen Sammlung der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft befindlich". Museum Senckenbergianum: Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der beschreibenden Naturgeschichte. 3: 137.
Jameson, Lyster (1909). "On a Sub-fossil Hare from a Cave Deposit at Godwan River". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 1 (3): 195–196.
Roberts, Austin (1938). "Descriptions of new forms of mammals". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 19 (2): 244. hdl:10520/AJA00411752_502.
Thomas, Oldfield (1929). "On Mammals from the Kaoko-Veld, South-West Africa, obtained during Captain Shortridge's fifth Percy Sladen and Kaffrarian Museum Expedition". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 99 (2): 109–110. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1929.tb07691.x.
Roberts, Austen (1949). "A New Pronolagus from Natal". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 21 (1): 179–180. hdl:10520/AJA00411752_472.
Duthie, A. G.; Robinson, T. J. (1990). "The African Rabbits". In Chapman, Joseph A.; Flux, John E. C. (eds.). Rabbits, Hares, and Pikas: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. pp. 121–127. ISBN 2-8317-0019-1.
Robinson, T.J. (1982). "Key to the South African Leporidae (Mammalia: Lagomorpha)". South African Journal of Zoology. 17 (4): 220–222. doi:10.1080/02541858.1982.11447806.
Robinson, T. J. (1980). "Comparative chromosome studies in the family Leporidae (Lagomorpha, Mammalia)". Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics. 28 (1–2): 64–70. doi:10.1159/000131513.
Robinson, Terence J. (2006). "Order Lagomorpha". In O'Brien, Stephen J.; Menninger, Joan C.; Nash, William G. (eds.). Atlas of Mammalian Chromosomes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Liss. pp. 342–355. doi:10.1002/0471779059. ISBN 9780471779056.
Robinson, T. J.; Yang, F.; Harrison, W. R. (2002). "Chromosome painting refines the history of genome evolution in hares and rabbits (order Lagomorpha)". Cytogenetic and Genome Research. 96: 223–227. doi:10.1159/000063034. PMID 12438803.
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.
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