Maclear's Christmas Island Rat
Rattus macleari (Thomas, 1887)
Also calledMcLear-patkány (hun) · joulusaarenpensasrotta (fin) · krysa Maclearova (ces) · Крыса Маклеара (rus) · クリスマスクマネズミ (jpn)
First described in: Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. vol.1887 p.513
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
Discussion: Rattus species group unresolved. Ellerman (1941) first listed the species as the only member of " macleari " group in subgenus Rattus, then placed it and R. nativitatis in same group within subgenus Stenomys of Rattus (Ellerman, 1949 a). Chasen (1940) thought R. macleari to be nearest Sundamys muelleri, but in their comparisons, Musser and Newcomb (1983) found no support for this alliance. Misonne (1969) included R. macleari in subgenus Rattus; at the other extreme, Sody (1941) proposed genus Christomys to contain it. In the original description, Thomas (1887 c) indicated R. macleari belonged to a group that included Taeromys celebensis, Lenomys meyeri, Rattus everetti, and R. xanthurus (he treated all as Rattus); of these, only R. xanthurus resembles R. macleari (Musser and Newcomb, 1983). Phylogenetic relationships remain unresolved, but Musser (1986) suggested R. macleari should be compared with a group of species that includes R. annandalei, R. enganus, R. korinchi, R. montanus, R. nativitatis, and R. xanthurus, none of them members of subgenus Rattus but distantly related to it. Until the introduction of Rattus rattus in 1899 (apparently from a cargo of hay carried
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
Distribution: Endemic to Christmas Isl, 320 km south of Java in the Indian Ocean; thought to be extinct by 1908 (Andrews, 1909) and now considered extirpated (Flannery, 1990 c), with time of extinction between 1901 and 1904 (Pickering and Norris, 1996).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
discussion
COMMENTS: Ellerman (1941) first listed the species as the only member of " macleari " group in subgenus Rattus, then placed it and R. nativitatis in same group within subgenus Stenomys of Rattus (Ellerman, 1949 a). Chasen (1940) thought macleari to be nearest Sundamys muelleri, but in their comparisons, Musser and Newcomb (1983) found no support for this alliance. Misonne (1969) included macleari in subgenus Rattus. Sody (1941) proposed genus Christomys for macleari. In the original description, Thomas (1887 c) indicated macleari to belong to a group that included celebensis, everetti, meyeri, and xanthurus; of these, only xanthurus resembled macleari (Musser and Newcomb, 1983). Phylogenetic relationships remain unresolved, but Musser (1986) suggested macleari should be compared with a group of species that includes annandalei, enganus, korinchi, montanus, nativitatis, and xanthurus, all not part of subgenus Rattus, and distantly related to it.
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
DISTRIBUTION: Was endemic to Christmas Isl, 320 km south of Java in the Indian Ocean, but was thought to be extinct by 1908 (Andrews, 1909) and is now considered extinct (Flannery, 1990 c).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Rattus macleari in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 2439231.