Lesser mole-rat
| Lesser mole-rat | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Spalacidae |
| Genus: | Spalax |
| Species: | S. leucodon |
| Binomial name | |
| Spalax leucodon Nordmann, 1840 | |
 | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Nannospalax leucodon (Nordmann, 1840) | |
The lesser mole-rat (Spalax leucodon) is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae found in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, Turkey, Iran and Ukraine. Recently, its taxonomic position is changing in the light of new scientific information.
Firstly, modern authors tend to separate this and some closely related mole rat species from other Spalax species by classifying them into a separate genus named Nannospalax.
Secondly, a recent cariological study shows Nannospalax leucodon is a superspecies consisting of several cariologically dinstinct cryptic species. It has four separate cariological forms in the Carpathian Basin, one of them is endangered, another one is vulnerable and no data are available to evaluate the conservation status of the other two forms.
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Spalax leucodon 2004 Hungarian stamp
References
- Amori, G. 1996. Nannospalax leucodon. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 9 July 2007.
- Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
- Németh A, Révay T, Hegyeli Z, Farkas J, Czabán D, Rózsás A, Csorba G 2009. Chromosomal forms and risk assessment of Nannospalax (superspecies leucodon) (Mammalia: Rodentia) in the Carpathian Basin Folia Zoologica, 58(3), 349–361.