Rhizomys Gray 1831

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Spalacidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 907-926 : 907

Rhizomys Gray 1831

Rhizomys Gray 1831 , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1831: 95.

Type Species: Rhizomys sinensis Gray 1831

Synonyms: Brachyrhizomys Teilhard de Chardin 1942 ; Nyctocleptes Temminck 1832 .

Species and subspecies: 3 species:

Species Rhizomys pruinosus Blyth 1851

Species Rhizomys sinensis Gray 1831

Species Rhizomys sumatrensis ( Raffles 1821)

Discussion: Anatomy of gastrointestinal tract and comparisons with other muroids provided by Vorontsov (1979); cranium and dentition figured by Ellerman (1940). Evolutionary history extends back to the very late Miocene (5.7 million years ago) in China ( Flynn, 1993). The extinct Chinese shansius, the genotype of Brachyrhizomys , is regarded as a species of Rhizomys with Brachyrhizomys conserved as a subgenus ( Flynn, 1990, 1993). Other extinct Pakistan and Indian species formally allocated to Brachyrhizomys ( Flynn, 1982 a, b) are rhizomyines, not tachyoryctines, that are morphologically more closely related to Rhizomys than to Cannomys and lack a generic name ( Flynn, 1990).