Dendromurinae is a subfamily of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), 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 roden ...

s in the family

Nesomyidae The Nesomyidae are a family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of which are native to either continental Africa or to Madagascar. Included in this family are Malagasy rodents, ...

and superfamily

Muroidea The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except A ...

. The dendromurines are currently restricted to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, as is the case for all

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

members of the family

. The authorship of the subfamily has been attributed to both Alston, 1876, and (incorrectly) to G. M. Allen, 1939. Two

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

, ''

Dendromus Mice in the genus ''Dendromus'' are commonly referred to as African climbing mice or tree mice, although these terms are often used to describe all members of the subfamily Dendromurinae. The genus is currently restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, ...

'' and ''

Steatomys ''Steatomys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It contains the following species: * Bocage's African fat mouse (''Steatomys bocagei'') * Northwestern fat mouse (''Steatomys caurinus'') * Dainty fat mouse (''Steatomys cuppedius'') ...

'', are relatively common throughout most of sub-Saharan

. The remaining genera are relatively rare and have restricted geographic distributions. The link rat, '' Deomys ferugineus'', has been traditionally placed in this subfamily, but

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies have shown that it is more related to the spiny mice, genus '' Acomys''. The link rat is now placed in the family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are the largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 1,383 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The name Muridae com ...

and subfamily

Deomyinae The subfamily Deomyinae consists of four genera of mouse-like rodents that were placed in the subfamilies Murinae and Dendromurinae until very recently. They are sometimes called the Acomyinae, particularly in references that antedate the dis ...

. Only two of the currently recognized dendromurine genera, ''

'' and ''

'', have been studied in molecular analyses. Considering how distinct these genera are from one another, the placement of all other dendromurine genera should be considered tentative pending closer examination. Another rare genus of "dendromurines", '' Leimacomys'', has recently been placed in a new subfamily (Leimacomyinae) in the family

(Musser and Carleton, 2005).

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s attributed to the Dendromurinae are known from

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

as early as 15 million years ago. It has been thought that dendromurines invaded Africa from there and became extinct in Asia due to competition with other muroids. The same may be holding true at present in Africa as the dendromurines have declined there since the invasion of murines and other muroids. The subfamily Dendromurinae contains 6 genera and 25 species.

Classification

Subfamily Dendromurinae - Climbing mice *Genus ''

'' - Climbing mice ** Remarkable climbing mouse, ''Dendromus insignis'' **

Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse The Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse (''Dendromus kahuziensis'') is a rodent found only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is listed as a critically endangered species due to illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, ...

, ''Dendromus kahuziensis'' ** Monard's African climbing mouse, ''Dendromus leucostomus'' ** Lovat's climbing mouse, ''Dendromus lovati'' ** Gray climbing mouse, ''Dendromus melanotis'' **

Brant's climbing mouse Brants's climbing mouse (''Dendromus mesomelas'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found in Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. Its natural habi ...

, ''Dendromus mesomelas'' ** Banana climbing mouse, ''Dendromus messorius'' ** Chestnut climbing mouse, ''Dendromus mystacalis'' ** Kivu climbing mouse, ''Dendromus nyasae (kivu)'' **

Nyika climbing mouse The Nyika climbing mouse (''Dendromus nyikae'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat is m ...

, ''Dendromus nyikae'' ** Cameroon climbing mouse, ''Dendromus oreas'' **'' Dendromus ruppi'' **

Vernay's climbing mouse Vernay's climbing mouse (''Dendromus vernayi'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found only in Angola. Its natural habitat is moist savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecos ...

, ''Dendromus vernayi'' *Genus '' Megadendromus'' ** Nikolaus's mouse, ''Megadendromus nikolausi'' *Genus ''

Dendroprionomys The velvet climbing mouse (''Dendroprionomys rousseloti'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae The Nesomyidae are a family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of ...

'' **

Velvet climbing mouse The velvet climbing mouse (''Dendroprionomys rousseloti'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found only in Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), als ...

, ''Dendroprionomys rousseloti'' *Genus '' Prionomys'' ** Dollman's climbing mouse, ''Prionomys batesi'' *Genus '' Malacothrix'' ** Gerbil mouse, ''Malacothrix typica'' *Genus ''

'' - Fat mice ** Bocage's African fat mouse, ''Steatomys bocagei'' **

Northwestern fat mouse The northwestern fat mouse (''Steatomys caurinus'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is native to tropical West Africa where it occurs on grassland and crop land. Taxonomy The northwestern fat mouse was first described as ''St ...

, ''Steatomys caurinus'' ** Dainty fat mouse, ''Steatomys cuppedius'' **

Jackson's fat mouse The Jackson's fat mouse (''Steatomys jacksoni'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found in Ghana, Nigeria and possibly Benin. Its natural habitats are arable land. References * * Schlitter, D. 2004.Steatomys jacksoni ...

, ''Steatomys jacksoni'' **

Kreb's fat mouse The Krebs's fat mouse (''Steatomys krebsii'') is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia. Its natural habitats are Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation and subtrop ...

, ''Steatomys krebsii'' **

Pousargues's African fat mouse Pousargues's African fat mouse (''Steatomys opimus'') is an extant species of rodent indigenous to the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Given the distribution of the species throughout central Africa, ...

, ''Steatomys opimus'' ** Tiny fat mouse, ''Steatomys parvus'' ** Fat mouse, ''Steatomys pratensis''

References

*Kingdon, J. 1997. The Kingdon

Field Guide A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the " field" or local area where such objects e ...

n Mammals. Academic Press Limited, London. * *Steppan, S. J., R. A. Adkins, and J. Anderson. 2004.

Phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spe ...

and

divergence date In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of th ...

estimates of rapid radiations in

muroid The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except A ...

s based on multiple nuclear

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

. Systematic Biology, 53:533-553. {{Taxonbar, from=Q222439 Nesomyid rodents Mammal subfamilies