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 Lophuromys (Lophuromys) brevicaudus Osgood 1936 Lophuromys (Lophuromys) brevicaudus Osgood 1936 , Zool. Ser. Field Mus . Nat. Hist., 20: 241 . Type Locality: Ethiopia , Arusi (=Arsi) Province, Chilalo Mtns, Mt Albasso. Vernacular Names: Short-tailed Brush-furred Rat . Distribution: Endemic to SC Ethiopian highlands on east side of Ethiopian Rift Valley between 2400 and 3750 m ; recorded from the Chilalo and Gedeb Mtns by Osgood (1936) and from the Bale Mtns by Lavrenchenko et al. (1998 b ) . Discussion: Subgenus Lophuromys , L. flavopunctatus species group ( Lavrenchenko et al., 1998 b , 2000). Described as a distinctive species ( Osgood, 1936 ), but later included in L. flavopunctatus ( Misonne, 1974 ; Yalden et al., 1976 , 1996 ). Allozymic ( Lavrenchenko et al., 2000 ), chromosomal ( Aniskin et al., 1997 ), and morphological and morphometric data ( Lavrenchenko et al., 1998 b ; W. Verheyen et al., 2002 ) separate brevicaudus as a species. Lavrenchenko et al. (1998 b ) noted that L. brevicauda is diurnal and one of the most common small mammals occurring in the Erica-Hypericum heath zone ( 3170-3750 m ) in the Harenna Forest on southern slopes of the Bale Mtns. At about 3500 m , L. brevicauda ’s range narrowly overlaps lower margin of the altitudinal distribution of L. melanonyx . At the lower end of L. brevicauda ’s altitudinal range, between 2400 and 2760 m in the Schefflera-Hagenia belt on southern slope of Bale Massif, it coexists with L. chrysopus (Lavrenchenko, 2000; Lavrenchenko et al., 1998 b ). Allozymic data ( Lavrenchenko et al., 2000 ) indicate that L. melanonyx diverged basally to the sister species L. brevicaudus and L. chrysopus . Lophuromys chrysopus , L. brevicaudus , and L. melanonyx "occur in the Bale Mountains, replacing each other in the different altitudinal belts (tropical forest–heathland–afro-alpine zone) each time with a small overlap suggesting an adaptive pattern of speciation" ( Lavrenchenko et al., 1998 b ). Multivariate analyses of morphometric data ( Bekele and Corti, 1994 ) from seven geographic samples of L. flavopunctatus and L. melanonyx uncovered three groups: L. megalonyx ; a second cluster of samples from N, C, and W Ethiopia ; and a third assemblage from the Bale Mtns. Lavrenchenko et al. (1998 b ) thought the Bale Mtns sample to be a mixture of L. brevicauda and L. chrysopus . Lophuromys brevicaudus , along with L. flavopunctatus and L. melanonyx , are Ethiopian endemics and members of the strictly Ethiopian L. flavopunctatus species group. The other two Ethiopian endemic Lophuromys ( brunneus and chrysopus ) apparently form a clade more closely related to the L. aquilus species group than to L. brevicaudus and its allies (W. Verheyen et al., 2002 ) .