Published December 31, 1993 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Rattus norvegicus

Description

Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769). Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland, 1:5.

TYPE LOCALITY: Great Britain.

DISTRIBUTION: Original distribution assumed to be SE Siberia and N China (Heilongjiang), but introduced worldwide where it is more common in colder climates of high latitudes (Kucheruk, 1990); in warmer regions and tropics restricted to habitats highly modified by humans—sewers, buildings, wharves, and breakwaters, for example (Johnson, 1962a).

SYNONYMS: norvegicus var. albus , caraco, caspius, cauquenensis, decaryi, decumanoides (nomen nudum), decumanus, discolor, griseipectus, hibernicus, hoffmanni (Trouessart, 1904, not Matschie, 1901), humiliatus, hybridus, insolatus, javanus, leucosternum, lutescens, magnirostris, decumanus var. major , maniculatus, norvegicus var. orii , norvegicus var. otomoi , plumbeus, praestans, primarius, simpsoni (Philippi, 1900, not Ellerman, 1949), socer, sowerbyi, surmulottus, tamarensis (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; Jones and Johnson, 1965; Laurie and Hill, 1954; Mahoney and Richardson, 1988; Musser, 1977a; Musser and Newcomb, 1985; Sody, 1941; and Osgood, 1943).

COMMENTS: Geographic variation among presumably native Chinese populations reported by Wu (1982). Samples from native Asian, free-living introduced, and laboratory populations were the subjects of numerous morphological (e.g., Bugge, 1970; Greene, 1935), physiological, chromosomal and molecular (many are summarized in Yosida, 1980, and Levan et al., 1990) studies, which have produced among the mass of data a gene map of R. norvegicus (Levan et al., 1990), and results of attempted hybridizations between R. norvegicus and different forms of R. rattus (summarized by Yosida, 1980). Review of European populations provided by Becker (1978b); overall review of systematics reported by Milyutin (1990). Phylogenetic relationships to other members of subgenus Rattus equivocal (e.g., contrast Chan et al., 1979, with Pasteur et al., 1982), but morphological and biochemical data indicate significant phylogenetic divergence between R. norvegicus and R. rattus (Baverstock et al., 1983 a, b, 1986; Chan, 1977). Phallic morphology of Chinese samples described by Yang and Fang (1988) in context of assessing phylogenetic relationships among Chinese murines.

Notes

Published as part of Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 501-755 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press on page 657, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098

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Linked records

Additional details

Related works

Biodiversity

Family
Muridae
Genus
Rattus
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Rodentia
Phylum
Chordata
Scientific name authorship
Berkenhout
Species
norvegicus
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) sec. Musser & Carleton, 1993

References

  • Kucheruk, V. V. 1990. Areal. [Range]. Pp. 34 - 84, in Seraya krysa: Sistematika, ekologiya, regulyatsiya chislenosti [Norway rat, systematics, ecology, population control] (V. E. Sokolov and E. V. Karasjova, eds.). Nauka, Moscow, 452 pp. (in Russian).
  • Johnson, D. H. 1962 a. Rodents and other Micronesian mammals collected. IV. A. Pp. 21 - 38, in Pacific island rat ecology. Report of a study made on Ponape and adjacent islands, 1955 - 1958 (T. I. Storer, ed.). Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, 225: 1 - 274.
  • Philippi, R. A. 1900. Figuras i descripciones de los murideos de Chile. Anales de Museo Nacional de Chile, Zoologie, 14 a: 1 - 70.
  • Ellerman, J. R., and T. C. S. Morrison-Scott. 1951. Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London, 810 pp.
  • Jones, J. K., Jr., and D. H. Johnson. 1965. Synopsis of the lagomorphs and rodents of Korea. University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, 16: 357 - 407.
  • Laurie, E. M. O., and J. E. Hill. 1954. List of land mammals of New Guinea, Celebes and adjacent islands 1758 - 1952. British Museum (Natural History) Publications, London, 175 pp.
  • Mahoney, J. A., and B. J. Richardson. 1988. Muridae. Pp. 154 - 192, in Zoological catalogue of Australia. Mammalia (J. L. Bannister, et. al.). Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 5: 1 - 274.
  • Musser, G. G. 1977 a. Epimys benguetensis, a composite, and one zoogeographic view of rat and mouse faunas in the Philippines and Celebes. American Museum Novitates, 2624: 1 - 15.
  • Musser, G. G., and C. Newcomb. 1985. Definitions of Indochinese Rattus losea and a new species from Vietnam. American Museum Novitates, 1814: 1 - 32.
  • Sody, H. J. V. 1941. On a collection of rats from the Indo- Malayan and Indo- Australian regions (with descriptions of 43 new genera, species and subspecies). Treubia, 18: 255 - 325.
  • Osgood, W. H. 1943. The mammals of Chile. Field Museum of Natural History, Zoological Series, 30: 1 - 268.
  • Wu De-ling. 1982. [On subspecific differentiation of brown rat (Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout) in China.] Acta Theriologica Sinica, 2: 107 - 112 (in Chinese).
  • Bugge, J. 1970. The contribution of the stapedial artery to the cephalic arterial supply in muroid rodents. Acta Anatomica, 76: 313 - 134.
  • Greene, E. C. 1935. Anatomy of the rat. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n. s., 27: 1 - 370.
  • Yosida, T. H. 1980. Cytogenetics of the black rat: Karyotype evolution and species differentiation. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 256 pp.
  • Levan, G., K. Klinga, C. Szpirer, and J. Szpirer. 1990. Gene map of the rat (Rattus norvegicus) 2 N = 42. Isozyme Bulletin, 23: 34 - 42.
  • Becker, K. 1978 b. Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) -- Wanderratte (WR). Pp. 401 - 420, in Handbuch der Saugetiere Europas (J. Niethammer and F. Krapp, eds.). Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft (Wiesbaden), 1: 1 - 476.
  • Milyutin, A. I. 1990. Sistematika [Systematics]. Pp. 25 - 33, in Seraya krysa: Sistematika, ekologiya, reguliatsiya chislennosti [Norway rat: Systematics, ecology, population control] (V. E. Sokolov and E. V. Karasjova, eds.). Nauka, Moscow, 452 pp. (in Russian).
  • Chan, K. L., S. S. Dhaliwal, and H. S. Yong. 1979. Protein variation and systematics of three subgenera of Malayan rats (Rodentia: Muridae, genus Rattus Fischer). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 64 B: 329 - 337.
  • Pasteur, N., J. Worms, M. Tohari, and D. Iskandar. 1982. Genetic differentiation in Indonesian and French rats of the subgenus Rattus. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, 10: 191 - 196.
  • Baverstock, P. R., M. Gelder, and A. Jahnke. 1983 a. Chromosome evolution in Australian Rattus- - G-banding and hybrid meiosis. Genetica, 60: 93 - 103.
  • Qumsiyeh, M. B., D. A. Schlitter, and A. M. Disi. 1986. New records and karyotypes of small mammals from Jordan. Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 51: 139 - 146.
  • Chan, K. L. 1977. Enzyme polymorphism in Malayan rats of the subgenus Rattus. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, 5: 161 - 168.
  • Yang An-feng and Fang Li-xiang. 1988. [Phallic morphology of 13 species of the family Muridae from China, with comments on its taxonomic significance.] Acta Theriologica Sinica, 8: 275 - 287 (in Chinese with English summary).