Zelotomys Osgood 1910

Zelotomys Osgood 1910, Field Mus . Nat. Hist. Publ., Zool. Ser., 10: 7.

Type Species: Mus hildegardeae Thomas 1902

Synonyms: Ochromys Thomas 1920 .

Species and subspecies: 2 species:

Species Zelotomys hildegardeae (Thomas 1902)

Species Zelotomys woosnami (Schwann 1906)

Discussion: Colomys Division. Similar to Colomys in molar occlusal patterns (Misonne, 1969, and our observations), but strength of evolutionary link to either that genus or other murines requires assessment by phylogenetic analyses of morphological traits incorporating more characters than those associated with molars. The phyletic link between Zelotomys and Colomys, however, is reinforced by mtDNA cytochrome b (Lecompte et al., 2002 b) and nuclear IRBP gene sequences (E. Lecompte, in litt., 2002), which place Zelotomys as sister to Colomys and align both with Myomyscus verreauxii in a monophyletic cluster within a larger group composed of Praomys, Mastomys, Myomyscus, Hylomyscus, Heimyscus, and Stenocephalemys . The relationship between Zelotomys and the Stenocephalemys Division was earlier inferred by Davis (1965) and Jaeger (1976). Earliest records of Zelotomys comes from the late Pliocene of Botswana, and Pleistocene fossils have been found in East Africa, South Africa, and Namibia (Avery, 2000; Denys, 1999; Jaeger, 1976; Pickford and Mein, 1988; Senut et al., 1992).