Dephomys cf. eburneae Heim de Balsac & Bellier, 1967

Dephomys defua eburneae Heim de Balsac & Bellier, 1967: 157.

Dephomys eburneae Van der Straeten 1984: 771.

REMARKS

The male specimen from Serengbara MNHN-ZM-2021-1694 (SER167) displayed the typical aspect of the genus, with a wooly pelage of grey-brown colour, a very long tail with a tiny tuft, short ears and long hindfeet. Its karyotype (2N=42, NFa = 52 or 54) is identical to that known for D. eburneae described by Tranier & Dosso (1979) from Adiopodoumé in Côte d’Ivoire. Looking at external standard measurements we can see that the newly collected specimen of clade B have a smaller hind foot length compared to clade A and this is also visible in old MNHN karyotyped specimens (Table 7). However, our sample here is too small to acknowledge this size difference for species discrimination.

The skull is long with a large braincase that is defined by a well-marked supraorbital crest. Frontal bones are flat while nasals and parietal bones are raised. The nasal bone is long, ending above the short proodont incisors. The tympanic bullae are very small compared to the size of the skull (between 3.87 mm and 4.89 mm). The glenoid foramen is round and well visible above the tympanic bullae. The palate is short ending just after the upper M3. Specimen MNHN-ZM-2021-1694 (SER167) is adult and its measurements fit well with other NHM specimens from Mount Nimba. It is larger than D. defua from Côte d’Ivoire, particularly its molar row length. Specimen MNHN-ZM-2021-1694 (SER167) looks similar to D. eburneae sharing the same basic karyotype (Table 8).