The coastal tapeti (''Sylvilagus tapetillus''), also known as the Rio de Janeiro dwarf cottontail or dwarf tapeti, is a species of

cottontail rabbit Cottontail rabbits are in the ''Sylvilagus'' genus, which is in the family Leporidae. They are found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characterist ...

native to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Known from only three specimens, captured in the late nineteenth century in the

Paraíba Valley The Paraíba Valley () is a landform that encompasses the regions: Paraíba Valley Metropolitan Region and Northern Coast, in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo and Sul-Fluminense Region, in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Jane ...

, it was for a long time considered to be a subspecies of the common tapeti (''Sylvilagus brasiliensis''). Slightly smaller than its close relative, analysis in 2017 confirmed that it is sufficiently distinct in both appearance and genetics to be considered a species in its own right. Due to destruction of its putative habitat in the densely populated Paraíba Valley, it is unclear whether or not the species still survives in the present day.

Taxonomy

The coastal tapeti was first described by

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

in 1913, who was at the time attempting to clarify the different species across the broad

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

of the common tapeti (''Sylvilagus brasiliensis''), as traditionally defined in 1758 by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

and species overall was originally described as "extremely small", and this characteristic was used to justify differentiating the species from others in the ''S. brasiliensis'' group. Its type locality was noted as "near Rezende, from Porto Real, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil" at an elevation of . It was among the first species to be clarified as distinct from the common tapeti, with the one other clarified species known as of 2018 being the Andean tapeti (''S. andinus'').

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q85797314 Sylvilagus Mammals of Brazil Mammals described in 1913 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas