Emma giant rat
| Emma giant rat | ||||||||||||
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| Uromys emmae | ||||||||||||
| ( Groves & Flannery , 1994) |
The Emma giant rat ( Uromys emmae ) is a rodent from the genus of the mosaic-tailed giant rats ( Uromys ), which occurs on Owi , an island of only 12 km² near Biak in northwest New Guinea .
The only specimen ever caught was an adult female from July 1946. The species is named after Emma Flannery, the daughter of biologist Tim Flannery (for example, Flannery named the purebred Echymipera davidi after his son David). The Emma giant rat is closely related to the white-tailed giant rat ( Uromys caudimaculatus ) of Australia and New Guinea and with mask giant rat ( U. hadrourus ) from South Australia. Presumably she also lives on Biak itself and on Supiori . In 1992, Flannery heard stories from local residents about what could possibly have been the Emma giant rat. The species appears to look like a small common white-tailed giant rat, only with smaller and wider feet. The small, broad feet and the short snout indicate that it is well adapted to life in trees. The head-trunk length is 232 millimeters, the tail length 258 millimeters, the hind foot length 50.5 millimeters and the ear length 20.5 millimeters.
literature
- Colin P. Groves , Tim F. Flannery : A revision of the genus Uromys Peters, 1867 (Muridae: Mammalia) with descriptions of two new species. In: Records of the Australian Museum. Vol. 46, No. 2, 1994, ISSN 0067-1975 , pp. 145-170.
- Tim Flannery: Mammals of the South-West Pacific and Moluccan Islands. Reed Books, Chatswood 1995, ISBN 0-7301-0417-6 .
Web link
- Uromys emmae inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Posted by: Leary, T., Seri, L., Flannery, T., Wright, D., Hamilton, S., Helgen, K., Singadan, R., Allison, A., James, R., Bonaccorso, F. & Lunde, D., 2008. Retrieved December 6, 2013.