Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae 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 2 930 955 book chapter 0-8018-8221-4 10.5281/zenodo.7316535 Mystromyinae Vorontsov 1966 Mystromyinae Vorontsov 1966 , Zool. Zh., 45: 437 . Synonyms: Mystromyini Vorontsov 1966 . Genera: 1 genus with 1 species: Genus Mystromys Wagner 1841 (1 species) Discussion: Phylogenetic allocation of Mystromys so puzzled Ellerman (1941:445) that he wrote "I am entirely at a loss to suggest the relationships of this genus, which seems not only isolated from the Palaearctic and Neotropical genera, but to have no marked generic characters." Based on a comprehensive study of morphological characters, Vorontsov (1966) concluded that M. albicaudatus is not closely related to Palearctic hamsters and placed it in the monotypic tribe Mystromyini . Carleton and Musser (1984:313) remarked that Mystromys is possibly a survivor of an ancient phyletic line, pointing out that Lavocat (1973 , 1978 ) "raised such a novel possibility for Mystromys by noting its probable derivation from afrocricetodontine rodents and by recognizing the subfamily Mystromyinae in the Nesomyidae , a family composed of archaic African cricetids that he derived from the afrocricetodontines, the African counterpart to European and Asian cricetodontines." Pocock (1987) , Skinner and Smithers (1990) , and Denys (1991) retained Mystromys in the Cricetinae, family Cricetidae . Wessels (1996) , based upon molar patterns, regarded Mystromys and Calomyscus as members of Myocricetodontinae, which she later arranged within Gerbillidae ( Wessels, 1998 ), an alliance endorsed by Mein et al. (2000 b ) . No other morphological data suggest such a close relationship with either gerbils or Calomyscus ( Vorontsov, 1966 ) , and molecular data also contradict either allocation. In a phylogenetic analysis of two nuclear protein-coding genes ( Michaux et al., 2001 b ), Mystromys is arrayed with representatives of Madagascan Nesomyinae and African Cricetomyinae and Dendromurinae , a clade completely separate from that containing Calomyscus and another circumscribing Gerbillinae, Deomyinae, and Murinae. According to the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b , Mystromys is similarly cladistically removed from Calomyscus and instead is sister genus to Petromyscus ( Jansa et al., 1999 ) . The ancestral stock of Mystromys and its close relative Proodontomys is yet to be identified, although Tong and Jaeger (1993) speculated that Mystromys was derived from Democricetodon , identified from the middle Miocene of East Africa. Mein et al. (2000 b ) , however, disputed that origin and hypothesized that Mioharimys , late Miocene of Namibia , represents the ancestral group from which living Mystromys evolved .