Tateomys Musser 1969

Tateomys Musser 1969, Am. Mus . Novit., 2384: 2.

Type Species: Tateomys rhinogradoides Musser 1969

Species and subspecies: 2 species:

Species Tateomys macrocercus Musser 1982

Species Tateomys rhinogradoides Musser 1969

Discussion: Melasmothrix Division. Originally, and incorrectly, linked to the " Rattus chrysocomus group" by Musser (1969 b), but morphological, spermatozoal, and ecological characteristics unite Tateomys and the other Sulawesian shrew rat Melasmothrix in the same monophyletic group to the exclusion of either Rattus, Bunomys, or any other Sulawesian endemic (Breed and Musser, 1991; Musser, 1982 c). Listed as part of the Sulawesi Old Endemics by Musser (1981 c) and revised by him (Musser, 1982 c); united with Melasmothrix by Corbet and Hill (1992). Tateomys, along with Melasmothrix, possibly are specialized remnants of one of the earliest lineages to have diverged from the ancestral Progonomys like murine stock. See Melasmothrix generic account.