Nelson's Rice Rat

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iNelson's Rice Rat
Conservation status
Extinct  (1897)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Sigmodontinae
Genus: Oryzomys
Species: O. nelsoni
Binomial name
Oryzomys nelsoni
Merriam, 1898

The Nelson's Rice Rat (Oryzomys nelsoni) is an extinct species of rice rat from damp thickets in the vicinity of springs near the summit of Maria Madre Island, in the Tres Marias Group, off the coast of western Mexico. Four specimens were collected on 18th May 1897. The rice rat may have disappeared due to introduced rats and cats.

The binomial of this species commemorates the American naturalist Edward William Nelson.

[edit] External source

  • Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001). A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. ISBN 0-87113-797-6.

[edit] References