Mexican pygmy pouch rat
| Mexican pygmy pouch rat | ||||||||||||
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| Marmosa mexicana | ||||||||||||
| Merriam , 1897 |
The Mexican pygmy sac rat ( Marmosa mexicana ) is a species of marsupial that occurs in southern and southeastern Mexico (states of Tamaulipas , Veracruz , Chiapas , Oaxaca and the Yucatán Peninsula ) and in Central America as well as on the islands of Roatán and Corn Islands .
description
The animals reach a head trunk length of 11 to 16.8 (males) or 9.4 to 13.3 cm (females), have a length of 15.2 to 22.8 (males) and 13 to 22.3 cm (females) ) long tail and reach a weight of 24 to 99 (males) or up to 56.7 g (females). The tail is on average about 37% longer than the head and torso combined. The fur on the back and the top of the head are conspicuously reddish-brown. Older animals get a gray-brown coat that is interspersed with reddish-brown hair. The middle of the snout is a bit lighter than the top of the head, but does not contrast clearly with it. Around the black eyes there are blackish-brown to blackish circles under the eyes, which extend to the bases of the ears. The fur on the underside from the chin to the anus and the inside of the front and rear legs are yellowish or orange-gray. A yellowish or orange stripe of fur runs from the chin to the anus. The paws are whitish, orange or brownish. The 10% of the tail, which is close to the body, is hairy, the rest is hairless. The bare tail section is dark brown. Females do not have a pouch. The number of teats is 11 to 15, five to seven on each side and one in the middle. The karyotype consists of a chromosome set of 2n = 14 chromosomes (FN = 24).
Habitat and way of life
The Mexican pygmy sacred rat lives in tropical and subtropical wet and dry forests, in bushland, in oak and pine forests and in mangrove forests up to heights of 1600 meters above sea level. It is nocturnal, lives mainly on low trees and only uses the ground occasionally. It feeds mainly on insects and fruits, but also eats small rodents, small lizards, birds, eggs and mycorrhizal fungi . The animals were also observed feeding on the inflorescences of the palm species Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana and they probably pollinate the plant in the process. For reproduction, the females build nests from dry leaves in trees, in abandoned bird nests or in the ground. The number of young animals in a litter is 2 to a maximum of 13, in most cases it is 11 to 13.
Systematics
The Mexican pygmy pouch rat was scientifically described for the first time in 1897 by the American zoologist Clinton Hart Merriam under the name Marmosa murina mexicana , i.e. as a subspecies of the mouse pygmy rat ( Marmosa murina ). Later it got the status of an independent species. Afterwards the Mexican dwarf sac rat was divided into four subspecies, one of which, Zeledon's dwarf sac rat ( Marmosa zeledoni ), became an independent species in 2010. The Handbook of the Mammals of the World , which was published in 2015, does not list any subspecies of the Mexican pygmy rat. It is noted, however, that two clades were found within the species whose systematic classification is to be expected in the future.
status
The Mexican dwarf pouch rat is listed as safe by the IUCN . It is numerous, adaptable, and has a wide range.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e Diego Astúa: Family Didelphidae (Opossums). in Don E. Wilson , Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World - Volume 5. Monotremes and Marsupials. Lynx Editions, 2015, ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6 . Page 138.
- ↑ Rogério V. Rossi, Robert S. Voss, Darrin P. Lunde: A Revision of the Didelphid Marsupial Genus Marmosa Part 1. The Species in Tate's 'Mexicana' and 'Mitis' Sections and Other Closely Related Forms. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 82 (11): 1-83 (2010). doi: 10.1206 / 334.1
- ↑ Marmosa mexicana in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: Martin, GM, 2016. Retrieved on February 20 of 2019.