Published December 31, 2005 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Crateromys australis Musser, Heaney, and Rabor 1985

Description

Crateromys australis Musser, Heaney, and Rabor 1985

Crateromys australis Musser, Heaney, and Rabor 1985, Am. Mus. Novit., 2821: 3.

Type Locality: Philippines, Surigao del Norte Province, Dinagat Isl, Loreto Municipality, Balitbiton.

Vernacular Names: Dinagat Crateromys.

Distribution: Greater Mindanao Faunal Region in the Philippines. Endemic to Dinagat Isl and known only from the type locality in tropical lowland evergreen rainforest (Heaney et al., 1999).

Conservation: IUCN – Endangered.

Discussion: Known only by the holotype. People living on the nearby island of Siargao reported seeing an arboreal rat resembling C. australis (Oliver et al, 1993). Pelage texture and coloration of C. australis is strikingly different from the other species of Crateromys, in some ways recalling species of Batomys; its molar occlusal patterns also resemble those characterizing Batomys. The latter is much smaller in body size, and terrestrial. A larger sample of C. australis is required from which data can be derived for analyses of morphological and molecular traits to test the following phylogenetic alternatives: 1) the species is a Crateromys unlike any other in the genus, 2) a giant arboreal Batomys, 3) a phylogenetic link between Crateromys and Batomys, or 4) member of a separate clade.

Notes

Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 1189-1531 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 1310, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7316535

Files

Files (1.8 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:b70c9b2c3af963880b40f8dddc67ab3e
1.8 kB Download

System files (10.2 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:f9079dad1293429a35ffc27f4e84d3fd
10.2 kB Download

Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Musser, Heaney, and Rabor
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Order
Rodentia
Family
Muridae
Genus
Crateromys
Species
australis
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Crateromys australis Musser, 1985 sec. Wilson & Reeder, 2005

References

  • Musser, G. G., L. R. Heaney, and D. S. Rabor. 1985. Philippine rats: A new species of Crateromys from Dinagat Island. American Museum Novitates, 2821: 1 - 25.
  • Heaney, L. R., D. S. Balete, E. A. Rickart, R. C. B. Uzurrum, and P. C. Gonzales. 1999. Mammalian diversity on Mount Isarog, a threatened center of endemism on southern Luzon Island, Philippines. Fieldiana: Zoology, n. s., 95: 1 - 62.
  • Oliver, W. L. R., C. R. Cox, P. C. Gonzales, and L. R. Heaney. 1993. Cloud rats in the Philippines-preliminary report on distribution and status. Oryx, 27 (1): 41 - 48.