Gray Rice Rat

Taxobox
name = Gray Rice Rat
status = LR/lc | status_system = IUCN2.3
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Cricetidae
subfamilia = Sigmodontinae
tribus = Oryzomyini
genus = "Eremoryzomys"
genus_authority = Weksler et al., 2006
species = "E. polius"
binomial = "Eremoryzomys polius"
binomial_authority = (Osgood, 1913)
synonyms = "Oryzomys polius"The Gray Rice Rat ("Eremoryzomys polius") is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae that is only found in the valley of Río Marañon in the northern Andes of Peru. Although it has long been placed in the genus "Oryzomys", it is now considered the only member of the separate genus "Eremoryzomys", which is sister to a clade containing, among others, "Holochilus", "Nectomys" and "Oryzomys" in the strict sense. The generic name combines the Ancient Greek word ἑρημια for "lonely place" with the name "Oryzomys" and stresses the lonely location of the Gray Rice Rat's distribution.

The dorsal pelage is gray, but the ventrum is white. It has short ears. There are tufts of hair at the base of the claws on the hindfoot. The long tail is darker above than below.

References

* Baillie, J. 1996. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/15609/all Oryzomys polius] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ] Downloaded on 19 July 2007.
*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.
*Weksler, M., A. R. Percequillo, and R.S. Voss. 2006. Ten new genera of oryzomyine rodents (Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae). American Museum Novitates 3537:1-29.