Lava mouse

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Lava mouse
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
A life restoration of a lava mouse
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Tribe: Murini
Genus: Malpaisomys
Hutterer, Lopez-Martinez & Michaux, 1988
Species:
M. insularis
Binomial name
Malpaisomys insularis
Hutterer, Lopez-Martinez & Michaux, 1988

The lava mouse (Malpaisomys insularis) is an

endemic rodent from the Canary Islands, Spain.[1] It is the only species in the genus
Malpaisomys.

The lava mouse is known from Holocene and Pleistocene deposits in the eastern Canary Islands, including Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and nearby islets. Radiocarbon dates indicate that it became extinct after the European arrival in the archipelago sometime after 1270 AD, probably due to the introduction of rats.[2]

A study of its skeletal characteristics suggested that the lava mouse lived in fissures opened in the lava fields.[3] The morphology of its teeth indicates that it was an herbivore.[3]

Its

insular gigantism); the lava mouse was fairly small for an insular rodent (some 20 cm in overall length).[3] Thus, it is more likely than not that it evolved from small Pliocene mainland genera Paraethomys, Occitanomys, or relatives thereof, than being a later derivative of the Deomyinae.[4] A 2012 genomic study recovered it as a highly divergent lineage within the genus Mus sensu lato most closely related to Coelomys.[5]

This rodent owes its name Malpaisomys to the Spanish word malpaís ("badlands"), denoting the lava fields where its fossil remains are sometimes found in cavities.

See also

  • Canariomys
  • List of extinct animals
  • List of extinct animals of Europe

References

  1. ^ Hutterer, Rainer; Lopez-Martinez, Nieves; Michaux, Jacques (1988). "A new rodent from Quaternary deposits of the Canary Islands and its relationships with Neogène and recent murids of Europe and Africa". Palaeovertebrata. 18 (4): 241–262.
  2. S2CID 86519083
    .
  3. ^ a b c Boye, Peter; Hutterer, Rainer; López-Martínez, Nieves; Michaux, Jacques (1992). "A reconstruction of the Lava mouse (Malpaisomys insularis), an extinct rodent of the Canary Islands". Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde. 57: 29–38.
  4. .
  5. .

External links