Ethiopian mylomys

The Königsmühle rat ( Mylomys rex ) is a poorly understood rodent species from the genus of African furrows tooth rats ( Mylomys ). This endemic in Ethiopia taxon is only known from a single specimen.

Features

The type specimen, an adult male, in which the skull is missing, has the following size information: The head-body length is 212 mm, tail length 175 mm, the Hinterfußlänge 35 mm and the ears length 24 mm. The back fur is speckled brown and reddish sand around the rump. The peritoneum is blue and white with a sharp demarcation between the dorsal and ventral coloration. The long tail is roughly curled. The front feet have only three functional toes.

Habitat and behavior

The Königsmühle rat was discovered at 1800 m altitude in an evergreen moist forest. About their life nothing is known.

Status and systematics

The IUCN klassizifiert the Königsmühle rat in the category of " insufficient data " ( data deficient ). She was described in 1906 by rex Oldfield Thomas as Arvicanthis. Thomas noted that it is believed to be a great form of Harrington rats ( Desmomys ) is a genre that sometimes as a synonym or as a subgenus of the furrows tooth -Bach rats ( Pelomys ) was considered. In the following 90 years, this species was called rex in the scientific literature as Pelomys. 1993 reported Guy Musser and Michael D. Carleton out that the Königsmühle rat belongs to the genus Mylomys. However, the separation from occurring in West and Central Africa Dybowskis mill rat ( Mylomys dybowskii ) was doubted and synonymized the two taxa together. 2005, the two authors found the species status restored, on the grounds that the Königsmühle rat is greater than Dybowskis mill rat and occurs in tropical evergreen forests. Musser and Carleton provide the type locality, the Charada Forest in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa, in question, but the type label clearly bears the signature of the collector Peter ZAPHIRO, who collected the holotype during an expedition to southern Ethiopia between 1904 and 1905. Between the known distribution areas of Königsmühle rat and the rat Dybowskis mill is a large gap and far too little data are available to assess the taxonomic status of Königsmühle rat correctly.