Serengetilagus

Summary

Serengetilagus is a genus of lagomorph in the family Leporidae. It lived in the Pliocene of Kenya and Tanzania and the Late Miocene of Chad.[1] Serengetilagus is the best-represented taxon from Laetoli, with approximately 34 percent of fossils in the Laetolil Beds attributed to this genus. Additional specimens from Angola, Morocco[3] and Ukraine[4] may also belong to this genus. It had a number of specific features unknown in other lagomorphs, such as a "missing" mesoflexid on its third premolar.[5]

Serengetilagus[2]
Temporal range: 7.0–2.66 Ma[1]
Serengetilagus praecapensis skull, Naturkunde Museum, Berlin.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Lagomorpha
Family: Leporidae
Genus: Serengetilagus
Dietrich 1942
Species
  • S. praecapenis Dietrich 1942
  • S. tchadensis López-Martínez et al 2007[1]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c López-Martínez, N., Likius, A., Mackaye, H. T., Vignaud, P., & Brunet, M. (2007). A new lagomorph from the Late Miocene of Chad (Central Africa). Revista Española de Paleontologia, 22, 1–20.
  2. ^ Dietrich WO. 1942. Early Quaternary mammals from the southern Serengeti, German East Africa. Palaeontographica.94(A):43–133. [In German]
  3. ^ Alisa J. Winkler, Dale A. Winkler & Terry Harrison (2016) Forelimb anatomy of Serengetilagus praecapensis (Mammalia: Lagomorpha): a Pliocene leporid from Laetoli, Tanzania, Historical Biology, 28:1-2, 252-263, https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2015.1023302
  4. ^ G. A. Zerova. 1993. Late Cainozoic localities of snakes and lizards of Ukraine. Revue de Paléobiologie, Volume spéciale 7:273-280
  5. ^ The Lower Third Premolar of Serengetilagus praecapensis (Mammalia: Lagomorpha: Leporidae) from Laetoli, Tanzania. In: Harrison T. (eds) Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9962-4_3