Jumping hares
| Jumping hares | ||||||||||||
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South African jumping hare ( Pedetes capensis ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Pedetidae | ||||||||||||
| JE Gray , 1825 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pedetes | ||||||||||||
| Illiger , 1811 |
The spring hares ( Pedetes ) are a genus of mammals and at the same time the only genus in the family Pedetidae. They occur in two types in southern and eastern Africa.
features
The jumping hares are comparatively large rodents with a body size of 40 centimeters and a weight of around 2.8 kilograms. They have long hind legs with long feet about six inches in length, while the front legs are very short. The tail reaches a length of over 40 centimeters. The eyes and ears are very large.
| 1 | · | 0 | · | 1 | · | 3 | = 20 |
The skull is strong and dorsally flattened with long nasal bones . Both species of the genus have a a maxillary per half incisor tooth formed incisor (incisor) to which a tooth gap ( diastema follows). This is followed by a premolar and three molars . The teeth in the lower jaw correspond to those in the upper jaw. In total, the animals have a set of 20 teeth.
distribution
The two species of jumping hares are distributed in the south and east of Africa, whereby the distribution areas do not overlap. While the South African jumping hare occurs in the arid regions of southern Africa from southern Congo via Angola , Zambia , Namibia , Botswana , Mozambique and Zimbabwe to the south of South Africa , the east African jumping hare is restricted in its distribution area to the south of Kenya and Tanzania .
Way of life
The jumping hares live as fast runners and jumpers similar to the jumping mice (Dipodidae) in dry and open steppe and semi-desert areas with little or no tree population. They are nocturnal and keep exclusively on the ground and feed on herbivores mainly of grasses and grass seeds. During the day they stay in dug burrows.
Systematics
The jumping hares are a genus of rodents (Rodentia) and at the same time the only recent representatives of the Pedetidae family. The first scientific description of the genus comes from Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger from 1811, the assignment to his own family and its first description was made by John Edward Gray in 1825. Together with the morphologically distinctly different thorntail squirrels , they are assigned to the thorntail squirrel relatives, although the taxonomic assignment is based on the characteristics are disputed. The jumping hares show characteristics of the porcupine relatives (hystricognath) as well as the squirrel relatives (sciurognath) and there were considerations to consider the jumping hares as an early separate superfamily Pedetoidea. Molecular data and characteristics of the embryonic development , however, suggest an assignment within the cone relatives, the hystricognathic characteristics are considered as convergent developments.
Two species living today are assigned to the genus:
- South African jumping hare ( Pedetes capensis )
- East African jumping hare ( Pedetes surdaster )
For a long time, all animals were assigned to only one species, Pedetes capensis , due to the low morphological variation . On the basis of molecular biological data and some skull features as well as physiological differences, however, the East African populations were then assigned to a separate species of Pedetes surdaster .
Fossil history
The oldest finds of rodents that are assigned to the spring hares date from the early Miocene , about 20 million years ago. These are Megapedetes pentadactylus from Kenya and Pedetes namaquensis from Namibia. The two genera differ mainly in size, with Megapedetes being larger but very similar to Pedetes in its characteristics . Other species that are only known to be fossilized are Pedetes gracilis and Pedetes hagenstadi , both from South Africa. The oldest fossils of the recent South African jumping hare come from the Pleistocene from Zimbabwe.
The origin and the tribal history of the jumping hares before the Miocene is not known, but it is assumed that the Pedetidae originated in the early Tertiary in Asia or Africa.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g Thomas M. Butynski: Family Pedetidae, Springhares. In: Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Michael Hoffmann, Thomas Butynski, Meredith Happold, Jan Kalina (eds.): Mammals of Africa. Volume 3: Rodents, Hares and Rabbits. Bloomsbury, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-4081-2253-2 , p. 618.
- ↑ a b c d e f Thomas M. Butynski: Genus Pedetes, Springhares. In: Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Michael Hoffmann, Thomas Butynski, Meredith Happold, Jan Kalina (eds.): Mammals of Africa. Volume 3: Rodents, Hares and Rabbits. Bloomsbury, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-4081-2253-2 , pp. 618-619.
- ↑ a b c Pedetidae ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Thomas M. Butynski : Family Pedetidae, Springhares. and Genus Pedetes, Springhares. In: Jonathan Kingdon , David Happold , Michael Hoffmann, Thomas Butynski, Meredith Happold, Jan Kalina (eds.): Mammals of Africa. Volume 3: Rodents, Hares and Rabbits. Bloomsbury, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-4081-2253-2 , pp. 618 ff.