New Guinea bag mice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Guinea bag mice
Systematics
Class : Mammals (mammalia)
Subclass : Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Superordinate : Australidelphia
Order : Raubbeutleriformes (Dasyuromorphia)
Family : Predator (Dasyuridae)
Genre : New Guinea bag mice
Scientific name
Murexia
Tate & Archbold , 1937

As New Guinea bag mice ( Murexia ) are five species of bag mice from the family of predatory mice (Dasyuridae) that occur in New Guinea .

General

Outwardly, these animals are similar to the shrews , but they are not related to them. Their fur is gray or reddish-brown on the top and white on the underside, the long tail is evenly hairy. New Guinea bag mice reach a head body length of 8 to 29 centimeters, a tail length of 15 to 28 centimeters and a weight of 30 to 400 grams, whereby the males are significantly heavier than the females.

Little is known about the way these animals live. Their habitat are forests up to 2000 meters above sea level, where they mainly live on trees. They are at least partially diurnal and build nests from leaves in the trees. They are likely carnivores that feed on insects and possibly small vertebrates.

species

There are five types:

  • Habbema New Guinea bag mouse ( Murexia habbema (Tate & Archbold, 1941)), inhabits the central highlands in New Guinea with two subspecies.
  • Long-tailed New Guinea bag mice ( Murexia longicaudata ( Schlegel , 1866)) is the largest and most ancient species of New Guinea bag mice. It is characterized by a reddish-brown fur and inhabits large parts of New Guinea and offshore islands.
  • Black-tailed New Guinea pouch mouse ( Murexia melanurus ( Thomas , 1899)) is characterized by a black tail and occurs in the central highlands, and in the southeast also in the lowlands of New Guinea.
  • Long-nosed New Guinea pouch mouse ( Murexia naso ( Jentink , 1911)), is characterized by an elongated snout.
  • Rothschild New Guinea bag mouse ( Murexia rothschildi (Tate, 1938)), its most noticeable characteristic is a black stripe on the back. So far only 10 specimens of this species have been found from eastern New Guinea.

Systematics

Three of the species ( M. habbema, M. naso and M. melanurus ) were placed in the genus of the broad-footed pouch mice ( Antechinus ) until 1984 , the remaining representatives of which only occur in Australia, but comparisons of the morphology of the phallus showed that this assignment could not be sustained. Molecular genetic studies of the cytochrome b , of 12S rRNA genes and of protamine P1 sequences of all predatory pouches led to the fact that all 5 New Guinea pouch mice were combined into a single genus ( Murexia ), which together with the brushtail pouches ( Phascogale ) and Antechinus den Form a tribe of Phascogalini. A study based on morphological investigations and published in 2002, however, came to the conclusion that the five species are neither closely related to one another nor to any other group of predatory mammals and that all were placed in their own, monotypical genus. Another molecular genetic study from 2007, in which two further gene loci each of mitochondrial DNA and cell nucleus DNA were examined, confirmed the monophyly of Murexia and that it belonged to the Phascogalini tribe in the predator family . This view has since been adopted by the IUCN and is also presented in Volume 5 of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World, a standard work on mammalogy .

literature

  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  • 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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Armstrong, LA, Krajewski, C. and Westerman, M. 1998: Phylogeny of the dasyurid marsupial genus Antechinus based on cytochrome-b, 12S-rRNA, and protamine-P1 genes. Journal of Mammalogy , Vol. 79: pp. 1379-1389.
  2. ^ Van Dyck, p. 2002: Morphology-based revision of Murexia and Antechinus (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 48: pp. 239-330.
  3. ^ Carey Krajewski, Roberta Torunsky, Justin T. Sipiorski, and Michael Westerman: Phylogenetic Relationships of the Dasyurid Marsupial Genus Murexia. Journal of Mammalogy 88 (3): 696-705. 2007, doi: 10.1644 / 06-MAMM-A-310R.1
  4. ↑ Murexia in the IUCN's 2008 Red List of Threatened Species . Accessed April 15, 2015.
  5. ↑ Andrew Baker: Family Dasyuridae (Carnivorous Marsupials). Pages 299 -30X in Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Monotremes and Marsupials: Volume 5. ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6