Molecular phylogeny of the genus Pronolagus (Mammalia: Lagomorpha) and the use of morphological and molecular characters in the delination of P. Rupestris

Abstract

Molecular and morphological characters were used to clarify phylogenetic relationships within Pronolagus and, in particular, within P. rupestris. All taxa are characterized by an invariant karyotype while molecular sequence data support the integrity of the conventionally accepted P. crassicaudatus, P. randensis and two well delimited mitochondrial DNA clades within P. rupestris. Cranial morphology was concordant with the molecular results but provided evidence of further subdivision within one of the P. rupestris mitochondrial DNA clades. Based on these data, P. rupestris is retained while two additional species are proposed: P saundersiae (Hewitt) limited to the southern Karoo regions and P. barretti (Roberts) which occurs along the eastern Escarpment of southern Africa. Additionally, sequence data from the 12S rRNA gene was utilized to identify the lagomorph sister taxon. Likely sister taxa include elephant shrews, primates and tree shrews; however, a winning sites test could not resolve with certainty the relationships between them.