Malacothrix Wagner 1843

Malacothrix Wagner 1843, in: Schreber, Die Saugethiere, Suppl., Vol. 3: 496.

Type Species: Otomys typicus A. Smith 1834

Synonyms:.

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Malacothrix typica (A. Smith 1834)

Discussion: Morphologically highly distinctive compared with species of Dendromus, Megadendromus, and Steatomys (Denys et al., 1995) . See Matthey (1967 a) for chromosomal information and karyological contrasts with other dendromurine genera. Known from late Pliocene and early Pleistocene in southern Africa (Avery, 1998; Senut et al., 1992). Generally considered monotypic (Meester et al., 1986), but this view needs affirmation by systematic revision.