Mastomys pernanus Kershaw 1921

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1367

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.7316535

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11334899

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A71B7D79-86E2-775C-4B1E-572CBD482E80

treatment provided by

Guido

scientific name

Mastomys pernanus Kershaw 1921
status

 

Mastomys pernanus Kershaw 1921 View in CoL

Mastomys pernanus Kershaw 1921 View in CoL , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 8: 568.

Type Locality: SW Kenya, Amala (Mara) River; see G. M. Allen (1939:406) and Misonne and Verschuren (1964:655) for details.

Vernacular Names: Dwarf Mastomys.

Distribution: Published records are from SW Kenya, N Tanzania, and Rwanda ( Misonne and Verschuren, 1964; see map inVan der Straeten, 1999:228).

Conservation: IUCN – Data Deficient.

Discussion: Known by very few specimens. Ellerman (1941) listed pernanus as a distinctive species of Rattus in the subgenus Mastomys , but earlier G. M. Allen (1939) had treated it as a species of Myomys . Robbins and Van der Straeten (1989) claimed this a possibility. Misonne and Verschuren (1964, 1966 b), however, discussed the problem and concluded that pernanus should be associated with Mastomys , an arrangement endorsed by Van der Straeten (1999). Van der Straeten (1999) studied and measured all known specimens (except those from Rwanda extracted from raptor pellets and a skull from Tanzania reported by Misonne and Verschuren, 1964, which could not be found in the Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen at Brussels). His principal component analysis contrasting two specimens of M. pernanus with holotypes of taxa in Praomys , Mastomys , Myomys , Myomyscus , and Hylomyscus indicated M. pernanus could be a dwarf Mastomys . Van der Straeten (1999) and Granjon et al. (1997 b) suggested that molecular data might provide sharper resolution of M. pernanus ’s affinities. Recent analyses of complete mtDNA cytochrome b ( Lecompte et al., 2002 b) and nuclear IRBP gene ( Lecompte, 2003) sequences did not cluster M. pernanus with the other species of Mastomys tested ( M. coucha , M. huberti , M. erythroleucus , M. natalensis , and M. kollmannspergeri [reported as verheyeni ]), but aligned it with Heimyscus and species of Hylomyscus . Keeping pernanus within Mastomys renders that genus polyphyletic, but extracting it will require additional analyses using a broader array of genes to determine if pernanus is the sole member of a separate genus related to Hylomyscus or to be included within that genus (see discussion in Lecompte, 2003).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Muridae

Genus

Mastomys

Loc

Mastomys pernanus Kershaw 1921

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn 2005
2005
Loc

Mastomys pernanus

Kershaw 1921: 568
1921
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