Sand Hills pocket gopher | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Geomyidae |
Genus: | Geomys |
Species: | G. lutescens
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Binomial name | |
Geomys lutescens Merriam, 1890
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Synonyms | |
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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]