HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA
--> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea
--> FAMILY Muridae
--> SUBFAMILY Murinae
--> GENUS Rattus
SPECIES Rattus richardsoni
Author: | Tate, 1949. | Citation: | Am. Mus. Novit., 1421: 1. | Common Name: | Richardson’s New Guinea Mountain Rat | Type Locality: | New Guinea, Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya), northern slopes of Snow Mtns (Pegunungan Maoke), near Lake Habbema, 3225 m. | Distribution: | New Guinea, Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya); recorded from three areas high in the Snow Mtns: Lake Habbema region, Mt Wilhelmina, and Mt Jaya (Carstensz Range), 3225-4500 m (Flannery, 1995a; Taylor et al., 1982). | Status: | IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Stenomys richardsoni. | Comments: | Rattus leucopus species group. Described as an unusual and distinctive member of Rattus, but later provisionally associated with a "niobe group" (Tate, 1951), a relationship supported by multivariate analyses of morphometric variables (Taylor et al., 1982). Most specimens are from tussock grassland and tundra-like habitat (mainly rock or gravel interspersed with mats of herbs and grass tufts), regions that are cold and wet throughout the year (Flannery, 1995a; Taylor et al., 1982). Taylor et al. (1982) included omichlodes, but Flannery (1995a) correctly removed it from synonymy (see that account). |
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