Colomys Thomas and Wroughton 1907

Colomys Thomas and Wroughton 1907, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 19: 379.

Type Species: Colomys goslingi Thomas and Wroughton 1907

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Colomys goslingi Thomas and Wroughton 1907

Discussion: Colomys Division. Nilopegamys has been included in Colomys (Hayman, 1966) but was recently separated from it (Kerbis Peterhans and Patterson, 1995). Using dental characteristics, Misonne (1969) placed Colomys in a Parapodemus group of his Lenothrix-Parapodemus Division with an inferred relationship to Malacomys, but that affinity is currently rejected (Dieterlen, 1983; E. Lecompte, 2002 b; results of our research). Molar occlusal patterns of Colomys resemble those of the African Zelotomys (Misonne, 1969, and verified by our observations), a shared-derived morphological feature concordant with results from phylogenetic analyses of complete mtDNA cytochrome b sequences (Lecompte et al., 2002 b) and nuclear IRBP gene sequences (Lecompte, 2003), which indicates Colomys to be sister to Zelotomys . Those molecular data align Colomys and Zelotomys with Myomyscus verreauxii in a monophyletic cluster embedded in a larger group composed of Praomys, Mastomys, Hylomyscus, Heimyscus, other Myomyscus, and Stenocephalemys; partial 16S rRNA mtDNA sequences also associated Colomys with Praomys, Mastomys, and Hylomyscus (Fadda et al., 2001 a) .