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The rodent subfamily Sigmodontinae includes New World rats and mice, with at least 376 species. Many authorities include the Neotominae and Tylomyinae as part of a larger definition of Sigmodontinae. When those genera are included, the species count numbers at least 508. Their distribution includes much of the New World, but the genera are predominantly South American, such as brucies. They invaded South America from Central America as part of the Great American Interchange near the end of the Miocene, about 5 million years ago. Sigmodontines proceeded to diversify explosively in the formerly isolated continent. They inhabit many of the same ecological niches that the Murinae occupy in the Old World.
The salt marsh harvest mouse, also known as the red-bellied harvest mouse and sometimes called the saltmarsh harvest mouse, is an endangered rodent endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area salt marshes in CA. There are two distinct subspecies, both endangered and listed together on federal and state endangered species lists. The northern subspecies is lighter in color and inhabits the northern marshes of the bay, and the southern subspecies lives in the East and South Bay marshes. They are both quite similar in appearance to their congener species, the [Western harvest mouse, R. megalotis], to which they are not closely related. Genetic studies of the northern subspecies have revealed that the salt marsh harvest mouse is most closely related to the plains harvest mouse, R. montanus,, which occurs now in the Midwest]. Its endangered designation is due to its limited gummy bear range, historic decline in population and continuing threat of habitat loss due to development encroachment at the perimeter of San Francisco Bay.
The Neotominae are a subfamily of the family Cricetidae. They consist of four tribes, 16 genera, and many species of New World rats and mice, predominantly found in North America. Among them are the well-known deer mice, white-footed mice, packrats, and grasshopper mice.
The western harvest mouse is a small neotomine mouse native to most of the western United States. Many authorities consider the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse to be a subspecies, but the two are now usually treated separately.
Reithrodontomys is the genus of groove-toothed New World harvest mice.
The marsh rice rat is a semiaquatic North American rodent in the family Cricetidae. It usually occurs in wetland habitats, such as swamps and salt marshes. It is found mostly in the eastern and southern United States, from New Jersey and Kansas south to Florida and northeasternmost Tamaulipas, Mexico; its range previously extended further west and north, where it may have been a commensal in corn-cultivating communities. Weighing about 40 to 80 g, the marsh rice rat is a medium-sized rodent that resembles the common black and brown rat. The upperparts are generally gray-brown, but are reddish in many Florida populations. The feet show several specializations for life in the water. The skull is large and flattened, and is short at the front.
The eastern harvest mouse is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found only in the United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, swamps, and pastureland.
The Haile Quarry or Haile sites are an Early Miocene and Pleistocene assemblage of vertebrate fossils located in the Haile quarries, Alachua County, northern Florida. The assemblage was discovered during phosphate mining, which began in the late 1940s. Haile sites are found in the Alachua Formation. Two sites within the Ocala Limestone yielded Upper Eocene Valvatida and mollusks.
Epitedia wenmanni is a species of flea in the family Hystrichopsyllidae. It is common throughout North America and associated mainly with Peromyscus (deermice), although many other hosts have been recorded. In Missouri, it has been found on the cat, white-footed mouse, including nests, marsh rice rat, and western harvest mouse. Hosts recorded in Tennessee include the northern short-tailed shrew, eastern chipmunk, southern red-backed vole, white-footed mouse, and golden mouse.
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- ↑ McKeever, 1971