Sand Hills pocket gopher | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Geomyidae |
Genus: | Geomys |
Species: | G. lutescens
|
Binomial name | |
Geomys lutescens
Merriam, 1890
| |
Synonyms | |
|
Geomys lutescens, also known as the Sand Hills pocket gopher, is a species of pocket gopher native to the western United States ( Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, and Nebraska). [1] It is a fossorial rodent that inhabits the Mississippi basin. The common name is derived from the type locality of Sand Hills. [2]
Authors have debated for decades whether this is a distinct species or a subspecies of the plains pocket gopher. [3] Recent genetic evidence and the lack of gene flow from other gopher populations has supported this being a distinct species and a sister species to Hall's pocket gopher. [4]
The subspecies G. l. jugossicularis was recently split from the Sand Hills pocket gopher as its own distinct species. The other subspecies, G. l. halli, was later found to be a subspecies of Hall's pocket gopher, leaving this species with no subspecies. [1]