Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Author
Guy G. Musser
Author
Michael D. Carleton
text
1993
Smithsonian Institution Press
Washington and London
Editor
Don E. Wilson
Editor
DeeAnn M. Reeder
Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition)
501
755
book chapter
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7353098
1-56098-217-9
7353098
Myomys yemeni
Sandborn and Hoogstraal, 1953
.
Fieldiana, Zoology, 34:241
.
TYPE LOCALITY:
Yemen
, Kariet Wadi Dhahr, six miles northwest of
San'a
,
6400 ft
.
DISTRIBUTION: Recorded only from N
Yemen
and SW
Saudia
Arabia (see map in Harrision and Bates, 1991:249).
COMMENTS: Originally described by
Sanborn and Hoogstraal (1953)
as a subspecies of
M. fumatus
,
the diagnostic traits of
yemeni
are outside the range of variation recorded for any sample of
fumatus
.
Our study of
holotype
and specimens of
yemeni
and
fumatus
at the Field Museum of Natural History revealed that
yemeni
is much larger than
fumatus
(no overlap in length of molar rows, for example), has paler pelage and significantly larger ears and auditory bullae (both absolutely and relative to body size). The morphological attributes of
yemeni
define a distinctive species of
Myomys
;
its phylogenetic relationships to other species in the genus have yet to be resolved. The species (under
fumatus
)
was reviewed by
Harrison and Bates (1991)
.