Yellow-brown comb rat
| Yellow-brown comb rat | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ctenomys fulvus | ||||||||||||
| Philippi , 1860 |
The yellow-brown or long-tailed crested rat ( Ctenomys fulvus ) is a type of crested rat . The species was first scientifically described in 1900 by the German-Chilean naturalist Rudolph Amandus Philippi from the Atacama desert in northern Chile and only occurs there and in neighboring regions.
features
The yellow-brown comb rat reaches a total length of 28 to over 35 centimeters, making it a very large species of the genus. The back fur is colored clay-brown with slightly grayish speckles and the sides of the body are slightly lighter than the back. The ventral side is a single color, light cinnamon to sand brown. The forehead is dark brown to black, and there is a thin dark line around the mouth. The tail is dark brown on top with a slightly brush-like tip. The upper part of the feet is whitish-sand-colored with some darker spots.
The skull is large and strong and equipped with several bone ridges. The nasal bones are wedge-shaped and the tympanic cavities are large and appear swollen.
The karyotype consists of a chromosome set of 2n = 26 chromosomes. The sperm are built symmetrically.
distribution
The yellow-brown comb rat lives in northern Chile and is distributed there in two subspecies. Of these, Ctenomys fulvus fulvus lives in the region around the city of Antofagasta and the Atacama Desert and Ctenomys fulvus robustus in the Región de Tarapacá in the Oasis de Pica near the city of Pica , also in the Atacama but clearly separated from the distribution area of the nominate form. The altitude distribution is above 2700 meters.
Way of life
The animals live in the sandy desert soils of the Atacama in the area of bushes and forest areas in the vicinity of oases and rivers. Like all other crested rats, it lives on the ground and digs in the ground, whereby the burrows are comparatively deep and are characterized by piles at the edge of the entrances. It is a herbivorous species that uses underground tubers and roots as well as aboveground vegetation such as leaves of the existing larrea species.
The species is adapted to the aridity of the desert through various behaviors. The activity times are mainly in the dry season in the early morning, after which the animals withdraw into the ground. In contrast to the outside world, the buildings have a stable microclimate. The temperature inside the building is usually between 19 and 25 ° C, while outside temperatures can vary between 6 and 62 ° C. The variation in temperature is around 5.8 ° C over the year, while outside the construction it is over 30 ° C. At the same time, the relative humidity in the building is 53 to 65%, while outside the building it is 1.9 to 3% during the day and only increases to around 20% at night and until the early morning. The animals also benefit from the high water content of their food and a comparatively low loss of water due to evaporation , which protects them from dehydration .
No information is available on the reproduction of the animals.
Systematics
The yellow-brown comb rat is classified as an independent species in the genus of the comb rats ( Ctenomys ). This consists of about 70 species. The first scientific description of the species comes from the German-Chilean zoologist Rudolph Amandus Philippi from 1960, who described it after a trip through the Atacama Desert. In the same publication, Philippi also described Ctenomys atacamensis and in 1896 the species Ctenomys robustus , Ctenomys pallidus , Ctenomys pernix and Ctenomys chilensis , which were later synonymous with Ctenomys fulvus . The puntilla crested rat ( Ctenomys coludo ) and the famatina crested rat ( Ctenomys famosus ) were sometimes considered to be subspecies of the yellow-brown crested rat, but today both are considered separate species.
The species was assigned to the opimus species group within the genus with some close relatives on the basis of molecular biological characteristics . Within the species, two subspecies are distinguished with the nominate form :
- Ctenomys fulvus fulvus Philippi, 1860
- Ctenomys fulvus robustus male , 1978
Status, threat and protection
The yellow-brown comb rat is not listed in a hazard category by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), as insufficient data are available for this; it is thus listed as “data deficient”.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Long-tailed Tuco-tuco. In: TRO Freitas: Family Ctenomyidae In: Don E. Wilson, TE Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier (editor): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. (HMW, Volume 6) Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016, p. 516. ISBN 978-84-941892-3-4 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Claudio J. Bidau Ctenomys fulvus Philippi, 1860. In: Family Ctenomyidae Lesson, 1842. In: JL Patton, UFJ Pardiñas, G. D'Elía: Mammals of South America. The University of Chicago Press, 2015; Pp. 837-838. ISBN 978-0-226-16957-6 .
- ↑ a b c Ctenomys fulvus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2019 Posted by: C. Bidau, R. Ojeda, 2016. Retrieved on June 16 of 2019.
- ^ A. Cortés, E. Miranda, M. Rosenmann, JR Rau: Thermal biology of the fossorial rodent Ctenomys fulvus from the Atacama desert, northern Chile. Journal of Thermal Biology 25 (6), 2000; Pp. 425-430. doi : 10.1016 / S0306-4565 (00) 00005-X .
- ↑ Ctenomys fulvus in Mammal Species of the World , 2005; accessed on June 8, 2019.
- ↑ Andrés Parada, Guillermo D'Elía, Claudio J. Bidau, Enrique P. Lessa: Species groups and the evolutionary diversification of tuco-tucos, genus Ctenomys (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae). Journal of Mammalogy 92 (3), June 9, 2011; Pp. 671-682. doi : 10.1644 / 10-MAMM-A-121.1
literature
- Long-tailed Tuco-tuco. In: TRO Freitas: Family Ctenomyidae In: Don E. Wilson, TE Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier (editor): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. (HMW, Volume 6) Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016, p. 516. ISBN 978-84-941892-3-4 .
- Claudio J. Bidau Ctenomys fulvus Philippi, 1860. In: Family Ctenomyidae Lesson, 1842. In: JL Patton, UFJ Pardiñas, G. D'Elía: Mammals of South America. The University of Chicago Press, 2015; Pp. 837-838. ISBN 978-0-226-16957-6 .