Ethiopian amphibious rat

The Ethiopian water mouse ( Nilopegamys plumbeus ) is an extremely rare or already extinct mouse type from the monotypic genus Nilopegamys.

Features

The only known specimen of the Ethiopian water mouse is a male with a snout-vent length of 148 mm. The broad, elongated hind feet are about 40 mm long. The tail length is 180 mm. The fur is very soft and dense. Characteristic is the long, smooth, oversized skull, which has the largest foramen magnum and the largest capacity of all known African Mäusetaxa. The eye socket region is depressed. Eyes and ears are very small. The top is almost uniformly slate black. The underside is almost pure white.

Status

The Ethiopian water mouse is only known from the holotype, which was found in March 1927 between Sakalla and Njabarra in the region Gojjam near the source of the Little Abbai in 2,600 meters in the north-western Ethiopia. The Terra typica is now completely destroyed by overgrazing. Therefore, the type of the IUCN was " threatened with extinction " in the category of ( critically endangered ) classified. Despite repeated searches taxon has not been detected to date. Therefore it can not be excluded that the Ethiopian water mouse is already extinct.

System

Nilopegamys described in 1928 by Wilfred Osgood as a separate genus. 1939 and 1941, this classification of Glover Morrill Allen and John Reeves Ellerman was taken. 1966 synonymisierte Robert William Hayman the genus Nilopegamys with the genus Colomys. Since then, the taxon often as subspecies of the African water rat ( Colomys goslingi ) was considered.

In a redescription of the genus Nilopegamys the zoologist Julian Kerbis Peterhans and Bruce Patterson laid in 1995, the morphological differences between the Ethiopian water mouse and the African water rat dar. Both taxa have a silky coat, its color contrasts sharply between the dark top and white bottom. Nilopegamys is greater than Colomys, has wider feet with hairy edges and proportionately smaller ears. In addition, sets the size of the foramen magnum and the medulla oblongata, the conjecture suggests that the Ethiopian water mouse is much more adapted to an amphibious lifestyle, than any other African Mäusetaxon, including the African water rat.