Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Author
Guy G. Musser
Author
Michael D. Carleton
text
1993
Smithsonian Institution Press
Washington and London
Editor
Don E. Wilson
Editor
DeeAnn M. Reeder
Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition)
501
755
book chapter
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7353098
1-56098-217-9
7353098
Calomys
Waterhouse, 1837
.
Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1837:21
.
TYPE SPECIES:
Mus (Calomys) bimaculatus
Waterhouse, 1837
(=
Mus laucha
Fischer, 1814
).
SYNONYMS:
Hesperomys
.
COMMENTS: Phyllotine. Cladistic position unclear, but generally viewed as a primitive clade relative to other phyllotine genera (
Hershkovitz, 1962
;
Pearson and Patton, 1976
). Possible relationship of
Calomys
to North American Pliocene form
Bensonomys
debated by
Baskin (1978
,
1986
) and Reig (1980). Generic revision by
Hershkovitz (1962)
, who reduced the previously-recognized 10-15 species (e.g., Cabrera, 1961;
Ellerman, 1941
) to only four, two of which,
laucha
and
callosus
,
have been later shown to be species complexes (
Corti et al., 1987
;
Massoia et al., 1968
;
Pearson and Patton, 1976
;
Reig, 1986
;
Williams and Mares, 1978
). Regional names, however, are sometimes employed in contradictory or inconsistent fashion, which leaves unsettled the question of relationship to extraregional forms and the identification of older synonyms to be employed. The species listed here, their distributional extent, and the allocation of synonyms must be viewed cautiously pending another generic revision.