Dendromus vernayi Hill and Carter 1937

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 930-955 : 941

Dendromus vernayi Hill and Carter 1937

Dendromus vernayi Hill and Carter 1937 , Am. Mus. Novit., 913: 4.

Type Locality: Angola, Angolan Plateau, Chitau, 4930 ft (1502 m).

Vernacular Names: Vernay's African Climbing Mouse.

Distribution: Known only from the type locality ( Hill and Carter, 1941; Crawford-Cabral, 1986, 1998), EC Angola.

Conservation: IUCN – Critically Endangered.

Discussion: Hill and Carter (1941) described vernayi as a subspecies of D. mesomelas , an association which has not been questioned ( Bohmann, 1942; Crawford-Cabral, 1986; Misonne, 1974). Re-examination of the holotype and original series (in AMNH) reveals vernayi to be distinguished from mesomelas by its much smaller body size and strikingly shorter tail, buffy gray venter (white, often with pale buff in D. mesomelas ), much smaller skull, postorbital region not constricted (as narrow as interorbit in D. mesomelas ), shorter and wider rostrum, and longer molar rows relative to skull length. No morphological data supports its affiliation with D. mesomelas or with the much larger D. insignis . Externally, D. vernayi resembles D. mystacalis , which also occurs at Chitau, but that species is much smaller and recalls D. mesomelas in coloration and cranial conformation. While also morphologically distinct from D. nyasae and D. oreas , D. vernayi will likely prove to be phylogenetically allied to those species than to any other Dendromus .