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

description: <i>Mylomys dybowskii</i> (Pousargues, 1893). Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr., 18:163. TYPE LOCALITY: Central African Republic (= French Congo), Kemo River. DISTRIBUTION: Guinea (Mt Nimba), Ivory Coast, Ghana, S Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic, W, N and E Zaire, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and S Sudan. SYNONYMS: <i>alberti, christyi, cuninghamei, lowei, massaicus, rex, richardi, roosevelti.</i> COMMENTS: Hatt (1940a) noted that the cotypes of <i>dybowskii</i> are examples of <i>Mylomys</i> and not <i>Pelomys,</i> under which the name had been listed (Ellerman, 1941), and selected a lectotype. The identity was verified by F. Petter (1962b). Significance of geographic variation in chromatic and morphological traits has yet to be assessed by critical systematic revision; whether the genus is monotypic or contains more than one species is unresolved. Chromosomal data for sample from Central African Republic reported by Matthey (1970), and those from Mt Nimba (Guinea) provided by Gautun et al. (1986). The taxon <i>rex,</i> represented only by the holotype, a skin without skull from Kaffa in C Ethiopia, was described by Thomas (1906a) as a species of <i>Arvicanthis,</i> but later "provisionally considered as a giant member of <i>Desmomys "</i> (Thomas, 1916a:68). Dieterlen (1974) challenged the validity of <i>rex,</i> but Yalden et al. (1976) pointed out the features distinguishing the holotype from samples of <i>D. harringtoni,</i> and treated <i>rex</i> as another distinctive species endemic to Ethiopia. Our study of the holotype skin reveals it to be a large and probably old adult of <i>Mylomys</i> that is not as brightly pigmented as most samples of that genus. Whether the holotype actually came from Ethiopia, or represents a separate species of <i>Mylomys</i> are unknown; we provisionally list <i>rex</i> in the synonymy of M. <i>dybowskii.</i>
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 630, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Hatt, R. T. 1940 a. Lagomorpha and Rodentia other than Sciuridae, Anomaluridae and Idiuridae, collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 76 (9): 457 - 604.", "Ellerman, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Vol. II. Family Muridae. British Museum (Natural History), London, 690 pp.", "Petter, F. 1962 b. Note de nomenclature sur le genere Mylomys (Rongeurs Murides). Mammalia, 26: 575.", "Gautun, J. - C., I. Sankhon, and M. Tranier. 1986. Nouvelle contribution a la connaissance des rongeurs du massif guineen des monts Nimba (Afrique occidentale). Systematique et apercu quantitatif. Mammalia, 50: 205 - 217.", "Thomas, O. 1906 a. Descriptions of new mammals from Mount Ruwenzori. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 7, 18: 136 - 147.", "Thomas, O. 1916 a. On the rats usually included in the genus Arvicanthis. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 8, 18: 67 - 70.", "Yalden, D. W., M. J. Largen, and D. Kock. 1976. Catalogue of the mammals of Ethiopia. 2. Insectivora and Rodentia. Monitore Zoologico Italiano, Supplemento 8 (1): 1 - 118."]}