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Arabian Jird
Meriones arimalius Cheesman & Hinton, 1924
Also calledArabien-Rennratte (deu) · Arabische Rennratte (deu) · Jird de la Península Arábiga (spa) · Mérione d / Arabie (fra) · arabianjirdi (fin) · pískomil arabský (ces) · suwak arabski (pol) · جرد عربي (ara) · アラビアスナネズミ (jpn)
First described in: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9 vol.14 p.554
The Arabian jird (Meriones arimalius) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
Discussion: Subgenus Pallasiomys. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) listed arimalius as a valid species, but it was later included in M. libycus (Corbet, 1978 c; Harrison and Bates, 1991). Pavlinov et al. (1990: 294) reinstated arimalius as a separate species and reviewed its salient characters. Even from the terse description of its diagnostic traits provided by Harrison and Bates (1991: 297), who recognized the form as a subspecies of M. libycus, it is evident that arimalius is morphologically different from populations of lybicus north of it in Saudi Arabia. The species was also considered distinct by Nadler and Lay (1967).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
Distribution: " Northern sands of the Rub al Khali in Saudi Arabia and Oman " (Harrison and Bates, 1991: 297).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
discussion
COMMENTS: Subgenus Pallasiomys. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) listed this form as a valid species, but it was later included in M. libycus (Corbet, 1978 c; Harrison and Bates, 1991). Pavlinov et al. (1990: 294) reinstated arimalius as a separate species and reviewed its salient characters. Even from the terse description of its diagnostic traits provided by Harrison and Bates (1991: 297), who recognized the form as a subspecies of M. libycus, it is evident that arimalius is quite morphologically different from populations of lybicus north of it in Saudia Arabia. The species was also considered distinct by Nadler and Lay (1967).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
DISTRIBUTION: " Northern sands of the Rub al Khali in Saudia Arabia and Oman " (Harrison and Bates, 1991: 297).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The fur is short and thin; the back is "sandy-cream" colored, the bottom is white, and the tail is "ivory to yellow, with a white tuft of hairs at the end". This type of specimen is 132 millimetres (5.2 in) long, with a 163 millimetres (6.4 in) long tail. The ears are 18 millimetres (0.71 in) and the hind feet 37 millimetres (1.5 in).
Range & habitat
Little is known about the Arabian jird's behavior, distribution, or abundance in its range. It has been found in the Rub al Khali desert in Oman and Saudi Arabia, and may occur in the United Arab Emirates as well. It is listed as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN despite the limited information, as it is widely distributed and its habitat is not under threat. Known predators of the Arabian jird include the sand cat, felis margarita. It is known to dig burrows and use them as shelter when threatened. It eats Abutilon fruticosum seeds.
== References ==
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Meriones arimalius in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 5219723.