Taxonomy and distribution of Abrawayaomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae), an Atlantic Forest endemic with the description of a new species
Author
Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J.
Author
Teta, Pablo
Author
D’Elía, Guillermo
text
Zootaxa
2009
2128
39
60
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.188290
87c65fec-36de-48ac-9d60-dd89c81bc06b
1175-5326
188290
Abrawayaomys
Cunha
and Cruz, 1979
Type
species
.
Abrawayaomys ruschii
Cunha
and Cruz, 1979
:2.
Included species
. Currently,
Abrawayaomys
is considered monotypic (see
Musser and Carleton, 2005
). However, as discussed below, we found morphological differences that allow describing a new species for Argentinean populations. In addition, specimens from Minas Gerais (
Brazil
) display a unique set of morphological traits that suggests the existence of a third species.
Emended diagnosis
. Medium sigmodontine rodents (total length range 200 ~
290 mm
, condilobasal length range 27 ~
29 mm
) with robust head, rounded small ears, and tail from slightly shorter to moderately larger than combined head and body length; dorsal pelage fully intermixed with grooved spiny hairs; dorsal and ventral pelage colors weakly delimited; rigid tail hairs arranged in sets composed by 5 hairs per scale; short apical tail tuft normally present; pes long with dense ungual tufts longer than claws, short claws, and six plantar pads; skull robust, rounded in outline with short and blunt rostrum, flared zygomatic arches, and inflated braincase; short nasals tapering distally; interorbital region hourglass to partially anteriorly convergent; coronal suture U-shaped; reduced interparietal; large foramen magnum; short incisive foramina; short palate; anterior margin of mesopterygoid fossa rounded, typically without sphenopalatine vacuities; carotid circulatory pattern complete (pattern 1;
Voss, 1988
); broad and high zygomatic plate; upper incisors narrow but noticeably deep and varying from slightly opisthodont to proodont; small brachyodont molars with main cusps slightly alternate; M1 pentalophodont
type
with anteromedian flexus barely present and reduced mesoloph fused with paracone; M3 reduced, uniradiculate, and cylindrical in outline; dentary with retromolar fossa enlarged and short angular process; stomach hemiglandular-unilocular.
Distribution (
Fig. 1
).
Abrawayaomys
is known from the Brazilian coastal forests, from northeastern to southeastern regions, from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro and from Paraná-Paraíba interior forest in northeastern
Argentina
. No fossil of
Abrawayaomys
is known.