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
Pseudomys fieldi
Waite 1896
Pseudomys fieldi
Waite 1896
,
Rept. Horn Sci. Exped.
Cent
.
Aust
., Zool., Vol. 2: 403
.
Type Locality:
Australia
, S
Northern Territory
, Alice Springs.
Vernacular Names:
Shark
Bay
Pseudomys
.
Synonyms:
Pseudomys praeconis
Thomas 1910
.
Distribution:
Australia
. The only natural living population occurs on Bernier Isl in Shark Bay,
Western Australia
; some animals from there were translocated to Doole Isl in Exmouth Gulf in 1993 (
Morris and Robinson, 1995
).
Conservation:
CITES
– Appendix I as
P. praeconis
;
U.S.
ESA
– Endangered as
P. fieldi
and
P. praeconis
;
IUCN
– Critically Endangered as
P. fieldi
, Vulnerable
as
P. praeconis
.
Discussion:
Clustered with most other species of
Pseudomys
, judged by electrophoretic data (
Baverstock et al., 1981
, reported under
praeconis
). In the 1980s,
fieldi
was thought to be represented only by the
holotype
collected at Alice Springs in
Northern Territory
in 1895 and
praeconis
was known only from Bernier Isl. While listing
fieldi
as a species,
Watts and Aslin (1981:171)
wrote that "It is difficult to determine whether or not this represents a distinct species or a rather aberrant specimen of some other species." Subfossil samples have now been discovered along the west coast south of Shark Bay, and through
Western Australia
(the upper Gascoyne, northern Goldfields, and Gibson Desert) to the S region of
Northern Territory
. Study of this material and the
holotypes
of
fieldi
and
praeconis
indicates that all the samples represent the same species and that it once had an extensive mainland distribution before European settlement (
Morris and Robinson, 1995
).