Psammomys obesus Cretzschmar, 1828 . In Riippell, Atlas Reise Nordl. Afr., Zool. Säugeth., p. 58, pl. 22.

TYPE LOCALITY: Egypt, Alexandria .

DISTRIBUTION: In North Africa from Algeria (Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska, 1991) through Tunisia and coastal region of Egypt (Osborn and Helmy, 1980) into Syria, Jordan, Israel, and parts of Arabia (Harrison and Bates, 1991); also on coast of Sudan (Corbet, 1978c).

SYNONYMS: algiricus, dianae, edusa, nicolli, roudairei, terraesanctae, tripolitanus .

COMMENTS: Electrophoretic, chromosomal, and morphological traits were analyzed by Qumsiyeh and Chesser (1988) in the context of assessing evolutionary change among four genera of gerbils.