Tawi-tawi wood rat

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Tawi-tawi wood rat
Systematics
Family : Long-tailed mice (Muridae)
Subfamily : Old World Mice (Murinae)
Tribe : Rattini
Rattus group
Genre : Rats ( rattus )
Type : Tawi-tawi wood rat
Scientific name
Rattus tawitawiensis
Musser & Heaney , 1985

The Tawi-Tawi wood rat ( Rattus tawitawiensis ) is a rat and belongs to the subfamily of Old World mice (Murinae). Their habitats are on Tawi-Tawi , an island that belongs to the Sulu Archipelago in the extreme southwest of the Philippines . To date only three animals have been caught.

The tawi-tawi wood rat is a large rat with dark brown fur and a short tail. It has relatively large teeth and eight mammary glands .

The discoverers have suspected that this rat has a strong similarity to other species on Southeast Asian islands, namely Rattus stoicus from the Andamans , Rattus palmarum and Rattus burrus from the Nicobar Islands , Rattus simalurensis from the Simalur Islands , Rattus lugens from the Mentawai Islands , Rattus adustus on Enggano and Rattus hoffmanni on Sulawesi . The affinity of Rattus hoffmanni with these species was later questioned by the discoverers.

literature

  • Guy G. Musser, Lawrence R. Heaney: Philippine rodents: definitions of Tarsomys and Limnomys plus a preliminary assessment of phylogenetic patterns among native Philippine murines (Murinae, Muridae). In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. No. 211, February 27, 1992, ISSN  0003-0090 , pp. 1-38.
  • Guy G. Musser, Mary Ellen: Sulawesi Rodents (Muridae: Murinae): Morphological and Geographical Boundaries of Species in the Rattus hoffmanni Group and a New Species from Pulau Peleng. In: Thomas A. Griffiths, David Klingener (eds.): Contributions to mammalogy in honor of Karl F. Koopman (= Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. No. 206). American Museum of Natural History, New York NY 1991, pp. 322-413.

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