The genus Pronolagus was proposed by Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr. in 1904, based on a skeleton that had been labeled Lepus crassicaudatusI. 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 ruddiThomas and Schwann 1905;[7] he wrote that the type species "should stand as Pronolagus crassicaudatusLyon (not Geoffroy) = Pronolagus ruddiThomas and Schwann".[8]
P. ruddi is no longer regarded as its own species, but rather a subspecies of P. crassicaudatus.[9][1]
southeastern provinces of South Africa (Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal), eastern Lesotho, Swaziland (Highveld and Lumbobo), and southern Mozambique (Maputo Province).
Pronolagus saundersiaeHewitt, 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.
^ abcdeCollins, 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.
^ abcdefgHappold, 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. ISBN978-1-4081-8992-4.
^ abEllerman, 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Lundholm, B. G. (1954). "Descriptions of New Mammals". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 22 (3): 293–294. hdl:10520/AJA00411752_408.
^ abMeester, 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. ISBN0907990061.
^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.
^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. ISBN9780471779056.
^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. PMID12438803.
Apps, Peter, ed. (2008). "Red Rock Rabbits". Smithers' Mammals of Southern Africa: A Field Guide (3rd ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 119–122. ISBN978-1-86872-550-2.
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.