Thomas's Ethiopian brush-furred rat explained

Thomas's Ethiopian brush-furred rat (Lophuromys brunneus), also called the brown brush-furred rat^[1] or the brown brush-furred mouse,^[2] is a species of brush-furred mouse^[3] from Southern Ethiopia.^[4]

Description

The holotype had a body 125mm long and a tail 80mm long. The body is a pale brown with a pale brown or clay-colored belly.^[5]

Range and habitat

L. brunneus is endemic to the highlands of Southern Ethiopia, from the Semien Mountains to Manno-Jimma. The type locality is around the Omo River.

History

It was originally described as a subspecies of Lophuromys aquilus (L. aquilus brunneus) in 1906 by Oldfield Thomas, from a specimen collected 13 May 1905. It was reclassified as a subspecies of Lophuromys flavopunctatus in 1936 as a synonym to subspecies L. flavopunctatus zaphiri. In 2002, it was elevated to species status.

Phylogeny

The species is closely related to the Ethiopian forest brush-furred rat (Lophuromys chrysopus). It is believed to have interbred with L. flavopunctatus.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Book: Duff . Andrew . Lawson . Ann . 2004 . Mammals of the World: A Checklist . United Kingdom . . 2–5 . 978-0-300-10398-4 . 9 December 2014 .
2. Book: Wrobel . Murray . 2006 . Elsevier's Dictionary of Mammals . Amsterdam . . 259 . 978-0-08-048882-0 . 9 December 2014 .
3. Web site: Lophuromys brunneus . Myers, P. . R. Espinosa . C. S. Parr . T. Jones. G. S. Hammond . T. A. Dewey . amp . 2014 . . 9 December 2014 .
4. Book: Wilson . Don E. . Reeder . DeeAnn M. . 2005 . Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference . 1 . Baltimore, Maryland . . 1204 . 978-0-8018-8221-0 . 9 December 2014 .
5. Thomas . Oldfield . Oldfield Thomas . 1906 . New Mammals collected in North-east Africa by Mr. Zahiro, and presented to the British Museum by W. N. McMillan, Esq. . . 18 . 106 . 300–306 . 10.1080/00222930608562614 . 9 December 2014 . .
6. Lavrenchenko . Leonid A. . Verheyen . Erik . Potapov . Sergei G. . Lebedev . Vladimir S. . Bulatova . Nina S.H. . Aniskin . Vladimir M. . Verheyen . Walter N. . Ryskov . Alexey P. . 20 October 2004 . Divergent and reticulate processes in evolution of Ethiopian Lophuromys flavopunctatus species complex: evidence from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA differentiation patterns . . 83 . 3 . 301–316 . 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2004.00390.x .