Ethiopian water mouse

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Ethiopian water mouse
Systematics
Family : Long-tailed mice (Muridae)
Subfamily : Old World Mice (Murinae)
Tribe : Praomyini
Colomys group
Genre : Ethiopian water mice
Type : Ethiopian water mouse
Scientific name of the  genus
Nilopegamys
Osgood , 1928
Scientific name of the  species
Nilopegamys plumbeus
Osgood , 1928

The Ethiopian water mouse ( Nilopegamys plumbeus ) is an extremely rare or already extinct species of mouse from the monotypic genus Nilopegamys .

features

The only known specimen of the Ethiopian water mouse is a male with a head-trunk length of 148 mm. The wide, elongated hind feet are about 40 mm long. The tail length is 180 mm. The fur is very soft and dense. Characteristic is the long, smooth, oversized skull, which has the largest foramen magnum and the largest capacity of all known African mouse taxa. The orbital region is depressed. The eyes and ears are very small. The top is almost uniformly slate black. The underside is almost pure white.

status

The Ethiopian water mouse is only known from the holotype , which was found in March 1927 between Sakalla and Njabarra in the Gojjam region near the source of the Little Abbai at an altitude of 2,600 meters in northwestern Ethiopia . The terra typica is now completely destroyed by overgrazing . Therefore, the species was classified by the IUCN in the “critically endangered” category . Despite multiple searches, the taxon has not yet been identified. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the Ethiopian water mouse has already become extinct.

Systematics

Nilopegamys was described by Wilfred Osgood in 1928 as an independent genus. In 1939 and 1941, this classification was adopted by Glover Morrill Allen and John Reeves Ellerman . In 1966 Robert William Hayman synonymous the genus Nilopegamys with the genus Colomys . Since then, the taxon has often been considered a subspecies of the African water rat ( Colomys goslingi ).

In a new description of the genus Nilopegamys , the zoologists Julian Kerbis Peterhans and Bruce Patterson explained the morphological differences between the Ethiopian water mouse and the African water rat in 1995. Both taxa have a velvety fur, the color of which contrasts sharply between the dark upper side and the white underside. Nilopegamys is larger than Colomys , has wider feet with hairy edges and proportionally smaller auricles. In addition, the size of the foramen magnum and medulla oblongata suggest that the Ethiopian water mouse is much more adapted to an amphibious way of life than any other African mouse taxon, including that of the African water rat.

literature

  • Wilfred H. Osgood: A new genus of aquatic rodents from Abyssinia. In: Field Museum of Natural History. Publication. No. 250, ISSN  0895-0237 = Fieldiana. Zoological Series. Vol. 12, No. 15, 1928, pp. 185-189, online .
  • Kerbis Peterhans, J. & Patterson, BD: The Ethiopian water mouse Nilopegamys Osgood, with comments on semi-aquatic adaptations in African Muridae. In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 113, 1995, ISSN  0024-4082 , pp. 329-349.
  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  • Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .

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