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
Praomys morio
(Trouessart 1881)
[Praomys] morio
(Trouessart 1881)
,
Bull. Soc. Etudes Sci. Angers, 10: 121
.
Type Locality:
Cameroon
, Mt
Cameroon
,
7000 ft
(
2135 m
); see
Rosevear (1969:399)
.
Vernacular Names:
Cameroon
Praomys
.
Synonyms:
Praomys maura
(Gray 1862)
.
Distribution:
Mt
Cameroon
and the mountainous island of Bioko (
Equatorial Guinea
), essentially the distribution outlined by
Eisentraut (1970)
.
Conservation:
IUCN
– Vulnerable.
Discussion:
2n = 34 (
Matthey, 1965
a
). A member of the
P. tullbergi
complex.
Musser and Carleton (1993)
restricted
P. morio
to Mt
Cameroon
, although
Eisentraut (1970)
recorded it from the island of Bioko, and F.
Petter (1965)
discussed samples from the
Central African Republic
. Musser and Carleton also noted that "The species requires definition; alleged distinctions between it and
P. tullbergi
may not reflect specific differences (Hutterer, in litt.). Our study revealed that series from outside of Mt
Cameroon
identified as
morio
are either
tullbergi
or an undescribed species of
Praomys
(the series from
Central African Republic
, for example [see
P. petteri
below])." Van der Straeten (in litt., 1994) wrote us that "The morphological differences between
morio
and
tullbergi
are clear and were described in detail by Eisentraut. I obtained the same results using all
Praomys
specimens collected by Eisentraut in Bioko and on Mount
Cameroon
in a principal component analysis. All this is in agreement with the breeding experiments carried out by Eisentraut."
Lecompte et al. (1999)
redescribed the
holotype
of
morio
, providing illustrations of the skull and molar rows along with cranial and dental measurements. Morphological traits of this
holotype
place it among the species in the
P. tullbergi
complex as that group is defined by
Van der Straeten and Dieterlen (1987)
and
Van der Straeten and Dudu (1990)
, an arrangement supported by cladistic analyses of morphological traits (
Lecompte et al., 2002
a
).