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HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA
--> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea
--> FAMILY Nesomyidae
--> SUBFAMILY Dendromurinae
GENUS Steatomys
| Author: | Peters, 1846. | | Citation: | Bericht Verhandl. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 11: 258. | | Type Species: | Steatomys pratensis Peters, 1846. | | Comments: | At least 18 species were recognized (G. M. Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941) until Coetzee (1977a) provisionally acknowledged only three. Based upon study of relevant literature and museum specimens, we identify eight, but relationship between the three West African forms and the five outside that region has yet to be resolved and the widely distributed S. pratensis and S. parvus need systematic revision. Rosevear (1969) provided an excellent exposition of the West African species, and Swanepoel and Schlitter (1978) produced a more comprehensive revision of them. Still, their definitions are unsatisfactory and distributional limits unresolved; Coetzee (1977a), e.g., included some West African species recognized by Swanepoel and Schlitter (1978) in either S. pratensis or S. parvus. Fossil history extends to the Pliocene (Avery, 1998, 2000; Denys, 1987a) and late Miocene (Senut et al., 1992). |
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