Orycteropus afer lademanni is an aardvark of central Tanzania, described from five skins and skulls from Wassi, north of Kondoa-Irangi.[1]
Names and classification
Grote named it Orycteropus afer lademanni in 1921, in Archiv für Naturgeschichte 87A (p. 123), in honour of the collector, Captain Lademann.[1][2] Some lists give the year as 1911, but the paper is in the 1921 volume.[1][2]
The Mammal Diversity Database treats this name as a synonym of the single species, Orycteropus afer.[2] 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.[3]
Description
Grote described a short-haired body from dark brown to dark greyish-brown, with the tail and the sides of the body lighter brown and mixed with whitish-grey hairs, and blackish-brown limbs. Total length was about 180 cm, with a tail of about 55 cm and ears of 15–15.4 cm.[1] The skull is 226–236 mm long and 90–95 mm wide across the cheekbones, broader-headed and shorter-snouted than matschiei.[1]
Range
It is given as living in central Tanzania. The type skins came from Wassi, north of Kondoa-Irangi.[3][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.[4] Treat this name as a historical description, not as a settled form. See the full list of names.
Sources
- Grote 1921, “Neue Erdferkel (Orycteropus) aus Deutsch-Ostafrika und Kamerun”, Archiv für Naturgeschichte 87A
- Mammal Diversity Database, Orycteropus afer
- Taylor 2011, Order Tubulidentata, in Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 2
- California Academy of Sciences, Afrotheria research page: Tubulidentata (secondary)