Pelomys Peters 1852

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 : 1436

Pelomys Peters 1852

Pelomys Peters 1852 , Bericht Verhandl. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 17: 275.

Type Species: Mus (Pelomys) fallax Peters 1852

Synonyms: Komemys De Beaux 1924 .

Species and subspecies: 5 species:

Species Pelomys campanae Huet 1888

Species Pelomys fallax Peters 1852

Species Pelomys hopkinsi Hayman 1955

Species Pelomys isseli de Beaux 1924

Species Pelomys minor Cabrera and Ruxton 1926

Discussion: Arvicanthis Division. Definition and phylogenetic position of Pelomys need to be reassessed in context of a systematic revision of arvicanthine murines. In overall morphology, the genus is most closely related to Mylomys and Desmomys , which in turn are members of a group also containing species of Arvicanthis , Lemniscomys , and Rhabdomys ( Musser, 1987 b) , an alliance corroborated by mtDNA sequences of cytochrome b and 12S and 16S rRNA gene fragments ( Ducroz et al., 2001). The latter study indicated Pelomys to be most closely related to Mylomys ( Ducroz et al., 2001) and some authors regard them as congeneric (e. g., Heim de Balsac and Bellier, 1967). Analysis of microcomplement fixation of albumin groups Pelomys with Lemniscomys , Rhabdomys , Grammomys , and Thallomys ( Watts and Baverstock, 1995 a) . Komemys is usually treated as a subgenus for P. hopkinsi and P. isseli (e.g., Delany, 1975), but we recognize it here as a synonym of Pelomys . Pelomys is represented by Pliocene and Pleistocene fossils from East Africa (Jaeger, 1976; Jaeger and Wesselman, 1976; Wesselman, 1984), South Africa ( de Graaff, 1961), Algeria ( de Bruijn et al., 1970; Jaeger, 1975), and outside of Africa on Mediterranean Rhodes Isl ( de Bruijn et al., 1970, 1996); see review by Denys (1999). The early Pliocene record of Pelomys from Afghanistan ( Sen et al., 1979) is an example of the extinct Parapelomys ( Brandy et al., 1980) .