Brucies
| Brucies | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Brucepattersonius | ||||||||||||
| Hershkovitz , 1998 |
The Brucies ( Brucepattersonius ) are a species of rodent living in South America from the group of New World mice . It includes seven types. The epithet honors the American mammalogen Bruce D. Patterson (* 1952) from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago
The animals of this genus are small, mouse-like animals, which are characterized by their elongated snout and so outwardly resemble the grave mice . They inhabit southeastern Brazil and the extreme northeast Argentina (province of Misiones ), their habitat are hilly forests, where they are mainly in the higher regions. They are soil dwellers, otherwise little is known about their way of life.
The following seven types are distinguished:
- The gray-bellied brucie ( Brucepattersonius griserufescens ) from southeastern Brazil,
- Brucepattersonius guarani from northeast Argentina,
- Brucepattersonius igniventris from southeastern Brazil,
- The ihering brucie ( Brucepattersonius iheringi ) from southeastern Brazil and northeastern Argentina,
- Brucepattersonius misionensis from Northeast Argentina,
- Brucepattersonius paradisus from northeast Argentina as well
- The short-tailed brucie ( Brucepattersonius soricinus ) from southeastern Brazil.
The genus was (in 1998 on the basis of four new species from Brazil as albinasus , griserufescens B. , B. igniventris and B. soricinus ) first described . In addition, he added the long-known species B. iheringi to the genus. This species was taxonomically controversial in the past and was most recently classified among the grave mice ( Oxymycterus ). In 2000 three other species were described ( B. guarani , B. misionensis and B. paradisus ), which originate from northeast Argentina and are all known only from a single specimen. In 2006 the species B. albinasus and B. griserufescens , which were listed as separate by Hershkovitz , were recognized as one species. It is conceivable that further populations will be combined into common species in the future as soon as more is known about the animals.
literature
- 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 .
- Júlio Fernando Vilela, João Alves de Oliveira, Cibele Rodrigues Bonvicino: Taxonomic status of Brucepattersonius albinasus (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae). In: Zootaxa. Vol. 1199, 2006, ISSN 1175-5326 , pp. 61-68.