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HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA
--> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea
--> FAMILY Muridae
--> SUBFAMILY Murinae
--> GENUS Dasymys
SPECIES Dasymys foxi
| Author: | Thomas, 1912. | | Citation: | Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 9: 685. | | Common Name: | Fox’s Dasymys | | Type Locality: | Nigeria, Panyam, 4000 ft (1220 m); 09°27N, 09°52’E (W. Verheyen et al., 2003). | | Distribution: | Endemic to the Jos Plateau in Nigeria. | | Status: | IUCN – Lower Risk (nt). | | Comments: | Member of the D. incomtus species complex (W. Verheyen et al., 2003). Originally described as a species, but subsequently treated as a subspecies of D. incomtus (Ellerman, 1941; Happold, 1987; Misonne, 1974; Rosevear, 1969) until the review by Carleton and Martinez (1991), who contrasted foxi’s distinctive morphological and distributional traits (larger body size is one of these) with the smaller-bodied D. rufulus (see account), the other and more common species in West Africa. Multivariate analyses of craniometric data by W. Verheyen et al. (2003:48) clustered a sample from Pulima, NW Ghana, with that from Panyam on the Jos Plateau, and W. Verheyen et al. speculated that the species of Dasymys living ". . . in the Guinean and Sudanese savannahs [of West Africa] should probably all be referred to the foxi taxon. . . ." This conclusion conflicts with results of the multivariate analyses of cranial and dentail measurements reported by Carleton and Marinez (1991) that showed a clear separation of samples collected in Liberia (including type series of rufulus), Ivory Coast, Ghana (including a large sample from Pulima), Togo, and Nigeria (west of the Jos Plateau) from a large sample near Panyam on the Jos Plateau. Those analyses, along with their qualitative inspection of specimens, identified the smaller-bodied D. rufulus as occurring from Sierra Leone east to W Nigeria, and and larger-bodied D. foxi as restricted to the Jos Plateau. |
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