Aardvark › Subspecies › Orycteropus afer kordofanicus

Orycteropus afer kordofanicus

Rothschild, 1927 Subspecies

Orycteropus afer kordofanicus is an aardvark of Kordofan in central Sudan, described from one adult in the Tring Museum.[1]

Names and classification

Rothschild named it Orycteropus afer kordofanicus in April 1927, as a new race (Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 9, vol. 19, p. 512).[1][2] The type is an adult from Kordofan, in the Tring Museum.[1]

The Mammal Diversity Database treats this name as a synonym of the single species, Orycteropus afer.[3] Taylor’s 2011 account lists it among 18 named subspecies, but says that neither their validity nor the limits of their ranges are properly known.[4]

Description

Rothschild described a slender build with longer legs and tail than the Cape form, a deep chocolate-brown coat and the front half of the tail white.[1]

Range

Map of Africa with the countries where the aardvark subspecies kordofanicus is recorded shaded
Range of kordofanicus by country, from Taylor 2011. Country shading overstates the range inside large countries. Base map: Natural Earth, public domain.

It is given as living in central Sudan. The type came from Kordofan.[4][1]

Status

Eighteen subspecies have been named, but that number is almost certainly too high, and because so little material exists, neither the status nor the limits of range of the subspecies are known.[5] Treat this name as a historical description, not as a settled form. See the full list of names.

Sources

  1. Rothschild 1927, description of the Kordofan aardvark
  2. Allen 1939, “A checklist of African mammals”, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 83
  3. Mammal Diversity Database, Orycteropus afer
  4. Taylor 2011, Order Tubulidentata, in Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 2
  5. California Academy of Sciences, Afrotheria research page: Tubulidentata (secondary)
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