Thallomys Thomas 1920
Creators: name: Musser, Guy G.
name: Carleton, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Muridae
Thallomys

description: <i>Thallomys</i> Thomas, 1920. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 5:141. TYPE SPECIES: <i>Mus nigricauda</i> Thomas, 1882. COMMENTS: After being proposed as a genus by Thomas (1920), <i>Thallomys</i> was used in checklists (e.g., Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941) until Ellerman et al. (1953) united it with subgenus <i>Aethomys</i> of <i>Rattus. Thallomys</i> was reinstated by Lundholm (1955c), who also suggested it was closely related to <i>Thamnomys.</i> Misonne (1969) pointed out that <i>Thallomys</i> has nothing to do with <i>Rattus,</i> and is most closely related to Tertiary european <i>Parapodemus,</i> an evaluation based on molar occlusal patterns. Although clearly unrelated to <i>Rattus, Thallomy's</i> phylogenetic position within the diversity of African murines is still unresolved. Early checklists and faunal accounts recognized several species (Ellerman, 1941; Roberts, 1951), but for last 20-30 years, <i>Thallomys</i> has been either treated as monotypic (D. H. S. Davis, 1965; Meester et al., 1986; Misonne, 1974), or as containing at least two species (Petter, 1973a; Skinner and Smithers, 1990). That considerable and significant morphological diversity exists in the genus has been acknowedged. D. H. S. Davis (1965), for example, recognized five groups of subspecies. Petter (1973a) clearly demonstrated that at least two species could be diagnosed. Regional faunal reports of southern African mammals discussed presence of two distinct kinds (Skinner and Smithers, 1990; Smithers and Wilson, 1979). Meester et al. (1986) announced the need for revision of <i>Thallomys,</i> and that both morphological and chromosomal data suggested the presence of two species (see Gordon, 1987). We list four species. Our review is based on original descriptions of taxa, Roberts' (1951) useful monograph and other regional faunal reports, large collections of specimens, and holotypes. Gastric anatomy reported by Perrin (1986).
description: Published as part of <i>Guy G. Musser &amp; 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</i> on page 668, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Thomas, O. 1882. On African mongooses. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1882: 59 - 93.", "Allen, G. M. 1939. A checklist of African mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 83: 1 - 763.", "Ellerman, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Vol. II. Family Muridae. British Museum (Natural History), London, 690 pp.", "Lundholm, B. G. 1955 c. Remarks on some South African Murinae. Annals of the Transvaal Museum, 22: 321 - 329.", "Misonne, X. 1969. African and Indo-Australian Muridae: Evolutionary trends. Annales Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgique, Serie IN- 8, Sciences Zoologiques, 172: 1 - 219.", "Roberts, A. 1951. The mammals of South Africa. Trustees of \" The mammals of South Africa \" book fund, Johannesburg, 700 pp.", "Meester, J. A. J., I. L. Rautenbach, N. J. Dippenaar, and C. M. Baker. 1986. Classification of southern African mammals. Transvaal Museum Monograph, 5: 1 - 359.", "Misonne, X. 1974. Order Rodentia. Part 6. Pp. 1 - 39, in The mammals of Africa: An identification manual (J. Meester and H. W. Setzer, eds.). [issued 10 Sep 1974]. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C., not continuously paginated.", "Petter, F. 1973 a. Capture de Thallomys paedulcus scotti en Ethiopie. Mammalia, 37: 360 - 361.", "Skinner, J. D., and R. H. N. Smithers. 1990. The mammals of the southern African subregion. Second ed. University of Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, 771 pp.", "Smithers, R. H. N., and V. J. Wilson. 1979. Checklist and atlas of the mammals of Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Museum Memoir, National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia, Salisbury, 9: 1 - 193.", "Gordon, D. H. 1987. Discovery of another species of tree rat. Transvaal Museum Bulletin, 22: 30 - 32.", "Perrin, M. R. 1986. Gastric anatomy and histology of an arboreal, folivorous murid rodent: The black-tailed tree rat Thallomys paedulcus (Sundevall, 1846). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 51: 224 - 236."]}