Anisomys Thomas 1903

Anisomys Thomas 1903, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1903 (2): 199.

Type Species: Anisomys imitator Thomas 1904

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Anisomys imitator Thomas 1903

Discussion: Pogonomys Division. Monotypic member of the New Guinea Old Endemics (Musser, 1981 c). Lidicker (1968) documented phallic morphology of Anisomys imitator and other New Guinea endemic murines, and concluded that the phallic morphology of Anisomys retained a high proportion of ancestral states. Breed and Aplin (1994:26) regarded morphology of the sperm head of Anisomys to be plesiomorphic for Muridae and the genus to be one of the "earliest offshoots of the Australo-Papuan murid radiation." Anisomys was used as the type genus of Anisomyini by Lidicker and Brylski (1987), but Ellerman (1941) had already isolated the genus as Anisomyes, which he thought probably merited subfamily rank. Watts and Baverstock (1994 b), based on microcomplement fixation of albumin, retained Anisomyini and also included Chiruromys, Hyomys, Macruromys, Mallomys, Coccymys, and Pogonomys in it.