Darwin rice rat
| Darwin rice rat | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nesoryzomys darwini | ||||||||||||
| Osgood , 1929 |
The Darwin rice rat ( Nesoryzomys darwini ) is an extinct mouse-like rodent from the genus of the Galápagos rice rats ( Nesoryzomys ).
description
The Darwin rice rat reached a length of 222 mm. The tail length was 89 mm and the hind foot length 27 mm. The top was gray-brown, the underside yellow-brown.
Distribution and way of life
The Darwin rice rat was endemic to Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Archipelago . It was probably nocturnal and stayed in caves or crevices during the day.
die out
In 1906 the first two specimens were collected in Academy Bay, and in 1929 four more were collected in Academy Bay and Conway Bay. In 1930 there was the last record of the species. The house rat was introduced in the late 1930s ; Presumably the Darwin rice rat died out due to pathogens introduced with the house rat or due to direct competition with this species. Further causes of extinction could have been the brown rats , which were also naturalized later, as well as the stalking by feral domestic cats.
literature
- Wilfred H. Osgood: A new rodent from the Galapagos Islands. In: Field Museum of Natural History. Zoological Series. Vol. 17, No. 2, 1929, ISSN 0895-0237 = Field Museum of Natural History. Publication. No. 261, pp. 21-24, ( Osgood's original description online) .
- Glover M. Allen: Extinct and vanishing Mammals of the Western Hemisphere, with the Marine species of all the Oceans (= Special publication of the American Committee for International Wild Life Protection. No. 11, ZDB -ID 971409-1 ). American Committee for International Wild Life Protection, Cambridge MA 1942.
- David W. Steadman, Steven Zousmer: Galápagos. Discovery on Darwin's Islands. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1988, ISBN 0-87474-882-8 .
- Robert C. Dowler, Darin S. Carroll, Cody W. Edwards: Rediscovery of rodents (Genus Nesoryzomys) considered extinct in the Galápagos Islands. In: Oryx. Vol. 34, No. 2, April 2000, ISSN 0030-6053 , pp. 109-117, doi : 10.1046 / j.1365-3008.2000.00104.x .
- Tim Flannery , Peter Schouten : A Gap in Nature. Discovering the World's Extinct Animals. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-87113-797-6 .
- Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 3rd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Web links
- Nesoryzomys darwini in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006 Posted by: J. Baillie, 1996. Retrieved on 9 September, 2007.