Meriones (Pallasiomys) crassus Sundevall 1842

Meriones (Pallasiomys) crassus Sundevall 1842, K. Svenska Vet. Akad., ser. 3: 233.

Type Locality: Egypt, Sinai, Fount of Moses (Ain Musa).

Vernacular Names: Sundevall's Jird.

Synonyms: Meriones (Pallasiomys) asyutensis Setzer 1961; Meriones (Pallasiomys) charon Thomas 1919; Meriones (Pallasiomys) ismahelis Cheesman and Hinton 1924; Meriones (Pallasiomys) longifrons Lataste 1884; Meriones (Pallasiomys) pallidus Bonhote 1912; Meriones (Pallasiomys) pelerinus Thomas 1919; Meriones (Pallasiomys) perpallidus Setzer 1961; Meriones (Pallasiomys) swinhoei Scully 1881; Meriones (Pallasiomys) tripolius Thomas 1919 .

Distribution: Across North Africa from Morocco through Niger, Sudan, and Egypt to Israel, Jordan, Syria, SE Anatolia (Turkey), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Pallasiomys . Reviewed by Corbet (1978 c) and Pavlinov et al. (1990). Regional reviews are available for Morocco (Aulagnier and Thevenot, 1986), Algeria (Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska, 1991), Libya (Ranck, 1968), Egypt (Osborn and Helmy, 1980), Sinai Peninsula (Saleh and Basuony, 1998), Israel and Jordan (Mendelssohn and Yom-Tov, 1999; Qumsiyeh, 1996), SE Turkey (Yi it et al., 1997 b, 1998 b), the Arabian Peninsula (Harrison and Bates, 1991), Iran (Lay, 1967; Morshed and Patton, 2002), and Afghanistan (Hassinger, 1973). See Koffler (1972, Mammalian Species, 9). Yi it et al. (1998 b) contrasted the distribution, morphology and chromosomes between M. crassus (2n = 60, FN = 76) and M. meridianus (2n = 50, FNa = 78) in E Turkey. See Dobigny et al. (2002 b) for additional karyotypic information and references.