Lesser mole-rat

Lesser mole-rat
File:Nannospalax leucodon.jpg
Conservation status
Data Deficient (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Spalacidae
Genus:	Spalax
Species:	S. leucodon
Binomial name
Spalax leucodon Nordmann, 1840
File:Spalax leucodon range map.png
Synonyms
Nannospalax leucodon (Nordmann, 1840)

The lesser mole-rat (Spalax leucodon) is a species of rodents 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.

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.