Pseudomys

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Pseudomys
Temporal range: Late Miocene - Recent
Nat mouse - Christopher Watson.jpg
Sandy inland mouse (Pseudomys hermannsburgensis)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Tribe: Hydromyini
Genus: Pseudomys
Gray, 1832
Type species
Pseudomys australis
Species

Pseudomys albocinereus
Pseudomys apodemoides
Pseudomys australis
Pseudomys bolami
Pseudomys calabyi
Pseudomys chapmani
Pseudomys delicatulus
Pseudomys desertor
Pseudomys fumeus
Pseudomys glaucus
Pseudomys gouldii
Pseudomys gracilicaudatus
Pseudomys hermannsburgensis
Pseudomys higginsi
Pseudomys johnsoni
Pseudomys laborifex
Pseudomys nanus
Pseudomys novaehollandiae
Pseudomys occidentalis
Pseudomys oralis
Pseudomys patrius
Pseudomys pilligaensis
Pseudomys shortridgei
Pseudomys vandycki

Contents

Pseudomys is a genus of rodent that contains a wide variety of mice native to Australia and New Guinea. They are among the few terrestrial placental mammals that colonised Australia without human intervention.

Natural history

This genus contains a number of species with different habits making generalisation difficult. The overall body size varies widely, ranging from 60 to 160 mm. The tail is 60–180 mm and the weight is recorded from 12 to 90 g. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats from rainforests to plains and grasslands. The animals are nocturnal and spend the day in burrows. Food also varies with some species eating seeds, roots and insects while others feed primarily on grasses. The pebble-mound mice are unique in creating mounds of stones around their burrows. Several species of Pseudomys are threatened due to competition with introduced species and habitat destruction. Several others are probably extinct.

Etymology

The name Pseudomys means "false mouse" [1] presumably in reference to both its similarity and uniqueness from "true mice" in the genus Mus .

Species

Genus Pseudomys - Australian native mice

Related Research Articles

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The plains rat(Pseudomys australis), also known as the palyoora, plains mouse and eastern mouse, is a conilurine rodent native to arid and semi-arid Australia. Referred to as the pallyoora or yarlie by Indigenous groups, the plains rat was once widely distributed across central Australia, including north-west New South Wales and south-west Queensland; however, habitat degradation due to grazing, introduced predators and drought have contributed to its decline. Consequently, the plains rat has been listed as 'presumed extinct' in New South Wales and Victoria, 'endangered' in the Northern Territory and Queensland and 'vulnerable' in Western Australia and South Australia. While recent research has indicated the presence of the plains rat in areas such as the Fowlers Gap and Strzelecki Desert regions of New South Wales and within the Diamantina National Park in Queensland, there are only five sub-populations currently recognised nationally, none of which coincide with recent discoveries of the plains rat. As the current population trend of the plains rat has been listed as 'declining' by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the IUCN conservation status for the species is 'vulnerable'.

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Pebble-mound mice are a group of rodents from Australia in the genus Pseudomys. They are small, brownish mice with medium to long, often pinkish brown tails. Unlike some other species of Pseudomys, they construct mounds of pebbles around their burrows, which play an important role in their social life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydromyini</span> Tribe of rodents

Hydromyini is a very large, diverse tribe of muroid rodents in the subfamily Murinae. They are the dominant native rodents in Australasia and one of only two native rodent groups there, the other being the R. fuscipes group of the genus Rattus in the tribe Rattini. They are also found in parts of Southeast Asia.

References

  1. Long, J.A.; Archer, M. (2002). Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. UNSW Press. p. 198. ISBN   9780868404356.
  2. Roycroft, Emily; MacDonald, Anna J.; Moritz, Craig; Moussalli, Adnan; Miguez, Roberto Portela; Rowe, Kevin C. (2021-07-06). "Museum genomics reveals the rapid decline and extinction of Australian rodents since European settlement". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (27): e2021390118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2021390118. ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   8271571 . PMID   34183409.