DOI: 10.15468/ug3bmr
title: Review of Moluccan Rattus (Rodentia: Muridae) with Description of Four New Species

description: This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Fabre, Pierre-Henri, Miguez, Roberto Portela, Holden, Mary Ellen, Fitriana, Yuli S., Semiadi, Gono, Musser, Guy G., Helgen, Kristofer M. (2023): Review of Moluccan Rattus (Rodentia: Muridae) with Description of Four New Species. Records of the Australian Museum 75 (5): 673-718, DOI: 10.3853/j.2201-4349.75.2023.1783ABSTRACT. Four new species of Rattus are described from the Moluccan islands (Maluku) of Indonesia: Rattus taliabuensis and R. feileri, both from the island of Taliabu, and R. halmaheraensis and R. obiensis from the islands of Halmahera and Obi, respectively. These descriptions are presented as part of a taxonomic review of Moluccan Rattus based on all known specimens in museum collections worldwide. Morphological characters, molecular systematics, and geographical distributions are documented for each of these species. Using both morpho-anatomical and morphometric approaches, we found that the Maluku Islands support Rattus taxa with spiny fur and two distinct morphotypes (1) species with a long tail and short rostrum (R. morotaiensis, R. halmaheraensis, R. obiensis, R. feileri) and (2) species with a short tail and long rostrum (R. taliabuensis, R. feliceus, R. ceramicus, R. elaphinus). Most of the new Moluccan species belong to a clade that includes members of the R. xanthurus species group from Sulawesi and the Australo-Papuan Rattus lineages. Their phylogenetic relationships highlight the role of Wallacea as an important area for diversification of Rattus into the Australo-Papuan region. Finally, the morphologically distinctive taxon Nesoromys ceramicus from Seram was found to be sister species to R. feliceus, and we relegate Nesoromys into the synonymy of the genus Rattus. The close affinities between R. ceramicus and R. feliceus may be an example of in situ island speciation, which has not been observed for small mammals on other Maluku Islands.Keywords: biodiversity, biogeography, Maluku, molecular systematics, morphology, Murinae, Rattini, WallaceaZooBank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:166CBDCE-FF32-4494-8952-5E229C669B4BORCID iD: P.-H. Fabre https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3414-5625 | R. Portela Miguez https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3094-9949Y.S. Fitriana https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-2496 | G. Semiadi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9351-9746 | K. M. Helgen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8776-4040 Corresponding author: Pierre-Henri Fabre pierre-henri.fabre@umontpellier.frSubmitted: 24 April 2023 Accepted: 9 November 2023 Published: 13 December 2023 (in print and online simultaneously)Publisher: The Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia (a statutory authority of, and principally funded by, the NSW State Government)Citation: Fabre, Pierre-Henri, Roberto Portela Miguez, Mary Ellen Holden, Yuli S. Fitriana, Gono Semiadi, Guy G. Musser, and Kristofer M.Helgen. 2023. Review of Moluccan Rattus (Rodentia: Muridae) with description of four new species. In Contributions to Mammalogy andZooarchaeology of Wallacea, ed. K. M. Helgen and R. K. Jones. Records of the Australian Museum 75(5): 673–718. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.75.2023.1783Copyright: © 2023 Fabre, Portela Miguez, Holden, Fitriana, Semiadi, Musser, Helgen. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.ABSTRAK [Bahasa Indonesia]. Empat spesies baru Rattus dideskripsi dari Kepulauan Maluku, yaitu Rattus taliabuensis dan R. feileri dari Pulau Taliabu, R. halmaheraensis dan R. obiensis masing-masing dari Pulau Halmahera dan Pulau Obi. Deskripsi spesies baru tersebut merupakan bagian dari reviu taksonomi Rattus dari Maluku berdasarkan semua spesimen yang ada di seluruh koleksi museum dunia. Selain spesies baru, juga didokumentasikan karakter morfologi, sistematika molekuler dan persebaran geografis Rattus dari Maluku. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan morfo-anatomi dan morfometri, kami menemukan bahwa Maluku memiliki taksa Rattus dengan rambut duri dan dua morfotipe yang berbeda yaitu (1) berekor panjang dan moncong pendek (R. morotaiensis, R. halmaheraensis, R. obiensis, R. feileri) atau (2) berekor pendek dan moncong panjang (R. taliabuensis, R. feliceus, R. ceramicus, R. elaphinus). Semua spesies baru dari Maluku termasuk dalam satu kelompok anggota R. xanthurus -group dari garis keturunan Rattus Sulawesi dan Australo-Papua. Hubungan kekerabatan mereka menunjukkan peran Wallacea sebagai jalur kolonisasi Rattus menuju ke kawasan Australo-Papua. Terakhir, Nesoromys ceramicus dari Seram yang secara morfologis berbeda, diketahui merupakan sister spesies dari R. feliceus. Oleh karena itu, kami mengusulkan agar genus Nesoromys ditempatkan di dalam genus Rattus. Kedekatan antara R. ceramicus dan R. feliceus kemungkinan merupakan contoh dari spesiasi pulau in situ, yang belum pernah diamati pada mamalia kecil di pulau-pulau lain di Maluku.