Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Author
Wilson, Don E.
Author
Reeder, DeeAnn
text
2005
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2
1189
1531
book chapter
0-8018-8221-4
10.5281/zenodo.7316535
Micaelamys
Ellerman 1941
Micaelamys
Ellerman 1941
,
Families and Genera of Living Rodents, Vol. 2: 170
.
Type Species:
Mus granti
Wroughton 1908
Species and subspecies:
2 species:
Species
Micaelamys granti
(Wroughton 1908)
Species
Micaelamys namaquensis
(A. Smith 1834)
Discussion:
Aethomys
Division. Formerly included in
Aethomys
as a subgenus, but a variety of data sets ranging from morphological to molecular indicate the two species discussed below belong in a monophyletic group,
Micaelamys
, separate from that containing species of
Aethomys
(see generic account of
Aethomys
). References cited in the following accounts treated
granti
and
namaquensis
as species of
Aethomys
. Including
Micaelamys
with
Aethomys
in the same Division is provisional. In phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA cytochrome
b
sequences,
Aethomys
(represented by
A. chrysophilus
and
A. kaiseri
) is closest to
Grammomys
, while
Micaelamys
(
M. namaquensis
) joins other African genera depending on the analyses (
Castiglia et al., 2003
b
;
Ducroz et al., 2001
). Phylogenetic analyses employing a broader sampling of not only species in
Aethomys
but of endemic African murine genera using molecular, chromosomal, and morphological data sets may resolve the phylogenetic relationships of
Aethomys
and
Micaelamys
. Evolutionary history as documented by fossils extends back to the late Pliocene of
South Africa
("
A. cf. namaquensis
";
Denys, 1990
c
), and Pleistocene of
Namibia
("
Micaelamys
";
Senut et al., 1992
).