The Bornean pithecheirops (''Pithecheirops otion'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

found in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. It is monotypic in the genus ''Pithecheirops''. ''Pithecheirops'' is closely related to the genus ''

Pithecheir ''Pithecheir'' is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae endemic to Southeast Asia. It contains the following species: * Red tree rat (''Pithecheir melanurus'') * Malayan tree rat The Malayan tree rat (''Pithecheir parvus'') is a species of ...

'', and the name is derived from ''Pithecheir'' and the Greek ''ops'', meaning "resembling". The only known example of this species was caught in the

Danum Valley Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 square kilometres tract of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. It has an extensive diversity of tropical flora and fauna, including such species as the rare Bornean ...

Field Centre in

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory o ...

, north Borneo, at approximately 150 m.

Description

It is similar to species in the genus ''

'', both having long, dense, soft fur and broad feet. The species is distinguished by the appearance of the inner ear bones and

auditory bulla The tympanic part of the temporal bone is a curved plate of bone lying below the squamous part of the temporal bone, in front of the mastoid process, and surrounding the external part of the ear canal. It originates as a separate bone (tympanic ...

Habitat

It was found in "dense viny roadside secondary brush on an abandoned logging road". The dominant habitat of the area is lowland

dipterocarp forest Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fr ...

. IUCN lists the species as Data Deficient due to this being the only known example of the species. There is no information on population numbers or distribution to indicate if the species is at risk or not. However given the loss of forest and human disturbance in the area and the fact that it was found in a degraded habitat, it may be somewhat adaptable to habitat loss.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q12266004, from2=Q146451 Old World rats and mice Taxa named by Louise H. Emmons