Atlantoxerus getulus
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
Atlantoxerus
Atlantoxerus getulus

description: Atlantoxerus getulus (Linnaeus): Barbary ground squirrel   
 Sciurus getulus Linnaeus 1758, p. 64. The type locality (“Habitat in Africa” = Lives in Africa) was restricted to “Barbary” (= Mediterranean Africa between Egypt and the Atlantic coast) by Thomas (1911:149), and to “ Agadir ” (Morocco) by Cabrera (1932: 217).On p. 218 Cabrera justified this step as follows (our translation from Spanish): “(1) Imports of animals and other goods from Morocco in the 17 th and 19 th century came mostly from the port “Santa Cruz de Berberia”, the current name of which is Agadir. Examples are squirrels figured in the painting “Arche Noah” by the Dutch artist P. Breughel [actually Jan Breughel the Elder, 1568–1625], now in the Prado in Madrid [Prado holds one of the later versions while the original is in the J. Paul Getty Museum; Kolb 2005], and in the book by Gessner from 1551. The picture in Gessner subsequently inspired Ray (1693, Synops. Method. Anim. Quadrup., p. 216) to discuss this squirrel. (2) Linnaeus based his name on the reports of Ray (as above), and of Edwards 1751 (A natural history of birds, vol. 4, plate 198), who reported and figured a squirrel from “Santa Cruz (on the Western Coast of Barbary, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean)”. The specimen figured in Gessner (1551), argues Cabrera, should be regarded as the type of the species.   
No subspecies are recognized.  
 Etymology.– The name Atlantoxerus was coined from Greek “Atlas” or “Atlantos” (=the Atlas Mts. in Morocco)+“ Xerus ” (dry in Greek) in allusion to the arid habitat. The species name is derived from Gaetulia (Romanized for a Berber Getulia), an ancient district in Northern Africa around the Atlas Mts.   
 Diagnosis. – The smallest species of Xerini, and the only one having a light spinal stripe (Figure 2), present metatarsal pads, a paired interparietal bone (Figure 7), upper incisor with traces of a groove, and brachiodont and bunodont cheek-teeth. Among the African Xerina, Atlantoxerus is unique in having rough, but not bristly (spiny) fur, four pairs of nipples, exposed orifice which is not sheltered by a tragus, in retaining the parieto-interparietal suture (Figure 7), and in having a short wedge-like extension of the jugal bone between the lacrimal and maxillary (Figure 10). Baculum (length= 7 mm) has a long proximal portion and simple blade which is asymmetrical in dorsal view and has a medial crest (Pocock 1923). The 3 rd upper premolar is present (Figure 8).   
Distribution. – Endemic to north-western Africa (Figure 9) in Morocco and present very marginally also in western Algeria (Aulagnier and Thevenot 1986, Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska 1991). In 1966–1970 introduced to Fuerteventura, the Canary Islands (Bertolino 2009). Prefers open rocky habitats.  
 Remarks. – Atlantoxerus getulus is reviewed in Aulagnier (2013).
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 535, DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2015-0073, http://zenodo.org/record/10476681