Pseudomys

Pseudomys is an animal 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.

Pseudomys
Temporal range: Pliocene - Recent
Sandy inland mouse (Pseudomys hermannsburgensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Murinae
Genus: Pseudomys
Gray, 1832
Species

Pseudomys albocinereus
Pseudomys apodemoides
Pseudomys australis
Pseudomys bolami
Pseudomys calabyi
Pseudomys chapmani
Pseudomys delicatulus
Pseudomys desertor
Pseudomys fieldi
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 †

Natural history

This genus contains a number of species with different habits making generalisation difficult. The overall body size varies widely, ranging from 60–160 mm. The tail is 60–180 mm and the weight is recorded from 12–90 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

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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.
  • Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
  • Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, London.
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