Little Pocket Mouse

Little Pocket Mouse
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Heteromyidae
Genus: Perognathus
Species: P. longimembris
Binomial name
Perognathus longimembris
(Coues, 1875)

The Little Pocket Mouse (Perognathus longimembris) is a species of rodent in the Heteromyidae family. It is found in Baja California and Sonora in Mexico and in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah in the United States.[1] Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.

Five mice of this species traveled into space and orbited the Earth and Moon in an experiment on board the Apollo 17 command module in December 1972. Four of the mice survived reentry.[2] Six other Little Pocket Mice were sent into orbit with Skylab 3 in July 1973, though these animals died only 30 hours into the mission due to a power failure.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ a b Linzey, A.V. (2008). Perognathus longimembris. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 22 January 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
  2. ^ Haymaker, W., Look, B., Benton, E. & Simmonds, R. Biomedical Results of Apollo. Chapter 4: The Apollo 17 Pocket Mouse Experiment. NASA SP-368, 1975.
  3. ^ Souza, Kenneth, Robert Hogan, and Rodney Ballard, eds. Life into Space: Space Life Sciences Experiments. NASA Ames Research Center 1965—1990. Washington D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1995. NASA Reference Publication-1372 (online version).
  4. ^ Borkowski, G., Wilfinger, W. & Lane P. "Laboratory Animals in Space," Animal Welfare Information Center Newsletter, Vol. 6 No. 2-4, Winter 1995/1996.