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 Rattus villosissimus Waite 1898 Rattus villosissimus Waite 1898 , Proc. R . Soc. Victoria , 10: 125 . Type Locality: Australia , Queensland , "from probably the vicinity of Goonhaghooheeny Billabong, Cooper Creek" ( Mahoney and Richardson, 1988:188 ). Vernacular Names: Australian Long-haired Rat . Synonyms: Rattus longipilis (Gould 1854) ; Rattus profusus Thomas 1921 . Distribution: Australia ; broad inland range from NW Western Australia through Northern Territory into most of Queensland and N South Australia and N New South Wales (see Watts and Aslin, 1981:245 ); fossils indicate a past broader range once extended across the Nullarbor Plain to the Great Australian Bight ( Watts and Aslin, 1981 ; Watts, 1995 k ). Range in South Australia summarized by Robinson et al. (2000). Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc). Discussion: Rattus fuscipes species group. Geographic range is allopatric to the coastal R. sordidus in Queensland and R. colletti in Northern Territory (see Taylor and Horner, 1973:72 ). The three species are closely related; villosissimus was treated as a subspecies of R. sordidus by Taylor and Horner (1973) , but is considered genically closer to colletti by Baverstock et al. (1983 a , 1986 ); see accounts of R. sordidus and R. colletti . An undescribed species related to R. villosissimus and R. colletti is known from a small area in C Queensland (Aplin, in litt., 2004). Analyses of electrophoretic data by Gemmeke and Niethammer (1984) indicated R. villosissimus to be greatly separated from R. argentiventer , R. exulans , R. norvegicus , and R. tiomanicus , and closer to species of Bandicota and Maxomys . Reviewed by Mahoney and Richardson (1988) , Watts and Aslin (1981) , and Watts (1995 k ) . Occurrence of R. villosissimus in Mootwingee National Park of W New South Wales documented by Ellis (1995 a ) based on skulls and mummified remains. Effects of inbreeding on skeletal development reported by Lacy and Horner (1996) .