Geosciurus princeps Thomas
Creators: name: Kryštufek, Boris
name: Mahmoudi, Ahmad
name: Tesakov, Alexey S.
name: Matějů, Jan
name: Hutterer, Rainer
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Sciuridae
Geosciurus
Geosciurus princeps

description: Geosciurus princeps Thomas: Damara (Kaokoveld) ground squirrel   
 Geosciurus princeps Thomas, 1929, p. 106. Type locality is “ Otjitundua, Central Kaokoveld, Namibia, Africa.”   
A monotypical species.  
 Etymology. – The name Geosciurus is derived from “geos” (Greek for earth)+ Sciurus (Greek for a squirrel, from “skia” for “shade”+“oura” for “tail” (both Greek), i.e. “a shadetail” “on account of the way a squirrel holds his bushy tail over his back” (Gotch 1995); Geosciurus is therefore “a ground squirrel” (allusion on its habits). The species name inauris consists of “in” (not, without)+“auris” (ear; both Latin) in allusion “to the very small ear pinnae of the species” (de Graaff 1981). The name princeps (Latin for “first” or “primary”) “may refer to the larger than average size, brighter coloration and more profusely ringed tail of this species in contrast to the somewhat smaller, drabber inauris.” (de Graaff 1981).   
 Diagnosis. – More fossorial than other African bristly ground squirrel. Size is large, fur is bristly; flanks with a stripe (Figure 2); hind foot robust, metatarsal pads absent; the ear extremely reduced to a rounded thickened rim, tragus absent; two pairs of nipples (posterior abdominal and the inguinal). Baculum (length is 8 mm in G. inauris) consists of long proximal cylindrical portion and elongated distal part; the upper surface of the blade is narrow and strongly constricted; dorsal crest is long (Pocock 1923). Skull is broad and deep, with a short rostrum and elongate braincase (Figure 6); jugal bone is bluntly truncated against the lacrimal. Cheek-teeth are relatively hypsodont; the 3rd upper premolar is absent (Figure 8).   
 Distribution. – The genus Geosciurus is endemic to Zambezian savannah (Denys 1999; Figure 9); G. inauris occupy open savannahs in Botswana, Republic of South Africa, and Namibia (Herzig-Straschil 1979) but possibly disappeared during the last century from Zimbabwe (Skurski and Waterman 2005). G. princeps is restricted to the western escarpment in Namibia and very marginally occurs in Republic of South Africa and Angola. Although ranges of the two species overlap, they select different habitats and segregate in behavior (Herzig-Straschil and Herzig 1989).   
 Remarks. – Both species of Geoscirus are well covered (as Xerus) in general faunal reviews of the mammals occupying the southern African subregion (de Graaff 1981, Skinner and Chimimba 2005). For other reviews see Skurski and Waterman (2005), Waterman and Herron (2004) and Waterman (2013d,e).
description: Published as part of Kryštufek, Boris, Mahmoudi, Ahmad, Tesakov, Alexey S., Matějů, Jan & Hutterer, Rainer, 2016, A review of bristly ground squirrels Xerini and a generic revision in the African genus Xerus, pp. 521-540 in Mammalia (Warsaw, Poland) (Warsaw, Poland) 80 (5) on page 534, DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2015-0073, http://zenodo.org/record/10476681