Solomys spriggsarum
| Solomys spriggsarum | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Solomys spriggsarum | ||||||||||||
| Flannery & Wickler , 1990 |
Solomys spriggsarum is an extinct rodent belonging to the naked tail rat genus. It is only known from subfossil bone material that was unearthed on the island of Buka at the northern end of the Solomon Islands range . The specific epithet honors the Australian anthropologist and archaeologist Matthew Spriggs (* 1954) and his wife, the linguist Ruth Saovana-Spriggs .
The holotype consists of a right maxillary fragment including most of the zygomatic plate and part of the right palatal bone . Further material includes 62 right and 69 left mandibular fragments as well as 14 left and 17 right maxillary fragments. Solomys spriggsarum reached about the same size as the recent species Solomys ponceleti from Bougainville . Solomys spriggsarum differed from the other Solomys species by the simpler molars , by larger cusps on the lower incisors and by the palatal bone that was enlarged to the rear. The skull and jaws were similar in size to Solomys ponceleti .
Bone and jaw fragments of Solomys spriggsarum were Abri of fossil deposit quite common to find Kilu on the island of Buka. The material is dated to an age of 6600 to 7900 years. However, some authors also consider an extinction time for the time after the birth of Christ to be possible. Presumably, this species died out due to the pursuit of dogs and pigs as well as through competition with other rat species. The subfossil remains of the introduced species were discovered in rock histories dated to around AD 90 (1860 yBP ).
Although S. spriggsarum and S. ponceleti were about the same size, molar and skull morphology suggests that both taxa lived differently and preferred different diets. The elongated rostrum of S. spriggsarum suggests that this species had a more ground-dwelling way of life, while S. ponceleti lived more in trees.
literature
- Tim F. Flannery , Stephen Wickler: Quaternary murids (Rodentia: Muridae) from Buka Island, Papua New Guinea, with descriptions of two new species. In: Australian Mammalogy . Vol. 13, 1990, ISSN 0310-0049 , pp. 127-139.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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 , p. 1547.