Afroalpine vlei rat

Afroalpine vlei rat
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Genus: Otomys
Species:
O. orestes
Binomial name
Otomys orestes
Thomas, 1900

The afroalpine vlei rat (Otomys orestes) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in the high moorlands of Kenya.[1]

Taxonomy

In Musser and Carleton (2005), this species included a number of subspecies.

Otomys thomasi (Thomas's vlei rat), which was initially described as a species by Osgood in 1910, was included under O. orestes in their work, alongside.[2] However, Taylor et al. (2011) found that O. thomasi, O. zinki (Mount Kilimanjaro vlei rat) and others subspecies were distinct from O. orestes.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ Carleton, M.D, and E.S. Schaefer. 2006. The status of Otomys orestes dollmani Heller, 1912 (Muridae: Otomyinae), a rodent described from the Mathews Range, central Kenya. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 119: 477–515.
  2. ^ Osgood, W. H. (1910). "Diagnoses of new East African mammals, including a new genus of Muridae". Field Museum of Natural History. 10 (2). Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  3. ^ Taylor, Peter J.; Lavrenchenko, Leonid A.; Carleton, Michael D.; Verheyen, Erik; Bennett, Nigel C.; Oosthuizen, Carel J.; Maree, Sarita (13 September 2011). "Specific limits and emerging diversity patterns in East African populations of laminate-toothed rats, genus Otomys (Muridae: Murinae: Otomyini): Revision of the Otomys typus complex" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3024 (1): 1–66. doi:10.11646/ZOOTAXA.3024.1.1. S2CID 59381852. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  4. ^ Taylor, P.J.; Relton, C. (2021). "Otomys thomasi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T48016232A78324728. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T48016232A78324728.en.


This Otomys article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.