New Pedetidae (Rodentia: Mammalia) from the Mio-Pliocene of Africa

Abstract

Pedetidae, or springhares, are represented by a single extant genus (Pedetes) and five extinct ones (Parapedetes, Megapedetes, Propedetes, Rusingapedetes and Oldrichpedetes of which the latter two are new). The fossil record of pedetids tends to be scanty, but remains have been found in Southern Africa, East Africa, the Maghreb, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey and Greece. Most of the localities have yielded only a few isolated teeth. We here describe some of the abundant fossil material from Namibia and Kenya, which throws a great deal of light onthe family.