Central Australian Rock Rat
Zyzomys pedunculatus (Waite, 1896)
Also calledAustralische Rotsrat (nld) · Rat à grosse queue (fra) · Rat � grosse queue (fra) · Rata Coligorda (spa) · Sentralaustralsk Steinmus (nob) · Zentralaustralische Dickschwanzratte (deu) · Zyzomys pédonculé (fra) · australianaavikkorotta (fin) · skałoskakun gruboogonowy (pol) · skálomyš tlustoocasá (ces) · Толстохвостая крыса (rus) · キタオブトイワバネズミ (jpn)
First described in: Rept. Horn Sci. Exped. Cent. Aust., Zool. vol.2 p.395
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
conservation
Conservation: CITES – Appendix I; U. S. ESA – Endangered; IUCN – Critically Endangered.
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
discussion
Discussion: Rare and restricted to rocks. Distribution of fossils indicated species " may once have extended across the rocky ranges of central Western Australia, through the Hamersleys to the coast " (Watts and Aslin, 1981: 143). This " is either one of Australia’s rarest rodents or its most recently extinct mammal .... The last specimen was collected in 1960 by a stockman in the Western MacDonnell Ranges near Mount Leibig, about 300 kilometres west of Alice Springs, while it was attempting to break into the camp food supplies. " (Wurst, 1995: 624). Recently the species has been rediscovered living in two national parks in the Northern Territory (Wurst, 1997, who also provided first photograph of the live animal).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
Distribution: C Australia; Northern Territory (Watts and Aslin, 1981: 143; Wurst, 1995: 625).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
materials_examined
Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, Alice Springs, but this locality is suspect (Kitchener, 1989; see also Mahoney and Richardson, 1988: 191).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Zyzomys pedunculatus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 2439329.