Hispid Cotton Rat

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Hispid Cotton Rat

Conservation status

Secure (TNC)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Genus: Sigmodon
Subgenus: Sigmodon
Species group: S. hispidus
Species: S. hispidus
Binomial name
Sigmodon hispidus
Say and Ord, 1825

The Hispid Cotton Rat, Sigmodon hispidus, is a rodent species long thought to occur in parts of South America, Central America, and southern North America. However, recent taxonomic revisions, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, have split this widely distributed species into three separate species. Carroll et al. (2004) indicate that the southern edge of the S. hispidus distribution is likely near the Rio Grande River where it meets the northern distribution of S. toltecus (formerly S. h. toltecus). The range of S. toltecus extends from northern Mexico south into Chiapas where it occurs in sympatry with S. hirsutus (formerly S. h. hirsutus). They have been used as laboratory animals. [1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Mittal SK, Middleton DM, Tikoo SK, Prevec L, Graham FL, Babiuk LA. Pathology and immunogenicity in the cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) model after infection with a bovine adenovirus type 3 recombinant virus expressing the firefly luciferase gene. J Gen Virol. 1996 Jan;77:1-9.PMID: 8558115
  • Infonatura
  • Carroll, D. S., L. L. Peppers, and R. D. Bradley. 2004. Molecular systematics and phylogeography of the Sigmodon hispidus species group. Pp. 85-98, in Contribuciones Mastozoologicas en Homenaje a Bernardo Villa (Sanchez-Cordero V. y R. A. Medellin Eds.) Instituto de Biologia e Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM, Mexico.
  • 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.