German's one-toothed moss mouse (''Pseudohydromys germani'')Reeder, D.M., Helgen, K.M. & Wilson, D.E. 2007. Global trends and biases in new mammal species discoveries. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Texas Tech University 269. is a species of rodent 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 come ...

which occurs in the mountains of southeastern New Guinea.

Taxonomy

It was first described in the genus ''Mayermys'', but this genus, which only included the two one-molared species, has since been synonymised under ''

Pseudohydromys ''Pseudohydromys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae endemic to New Guinea. It contains the following species: * Bishop's moss mouse (''Pseudohydromys berniceae'') * Huon small-toothed moss mouse (''Pseudohydromys carlae'') * Laur ...

'' because of the close morphological resemblances among ''Mayermys'' and the other species now placed in ''Pseudohydromys''. As a member of the ''Xeromys'' division within the subfamily Murinae, ''P. germani'' is related to the

false water rat ''Xeromys myoides'', also known as the water mouse, marine mouse, mangrove mouse, false water rat, manngay and yirrkoo, is a species of rodent native to waterways of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Taxonomy A description of the species was pu ...

(''Xeromys myoides'') of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and southern New Guinea and to the three species of '' Leptomys'', another New Guinean genus, and more distantly to other New Guinean and Australian rodents, including the water rat.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.

Description

Like its relative, ''P. germani'' is a small, inconspicuous, shrew-like mouse, but it is slightly larger and has darker (dark grey as opposed to pale grey) ears and a sparsely haired tail with short hairs (the other species has more and longer hairs). Its molars, however, are even smaller (less than 1 mm) than the other species's tiny teeth. The upper incisors are

proodont In rodents, incisor procumbency refers to the orientation of the upper incisor, defined by the position of the cutting edge of the incisor relative to the vertical plane of the incisors. Proodont incisors have the cutting edge in front of the vert ...

, but less so than in the one-toothed shrew mouse. The head-body length is 105 mm, the tail length 103 mm, the hindfoot length 21 mm, the ear length 12.6 mm and the weight 29.5 g. It has only one molar and only one incisor in each jaw quadrant for a total of eight teeth, less than any other rodents except for its close relative, the

one-toothed shrew mouse The one-toothed shew mouse (''Pseudohydromys ellermani'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua N ...

(''P. ellermani'') and the recently described ''

Paucidentomys ''Paucidentomys'' is a genus of rodents of a type commonly known as shrew-rats which was discovered in 2012 in a remote rainforest on the Indonesian island, Sulawesi. The genus is monotypic, consisting of the species ''Paucidentomys vermidax'', ...

'', which lacks molars entirely.

Distribution and habitat

It is known from only one specimen, an adult male which was caught at an altitude of 1300 m in the village of Munimun, Milne Bay Province, southeastern Papua New Guinea in August 1992. ''P. germani'' was first described in 2005 by biologist

Kristofer Helgen Kristofer is a masculine first name. It is a variant of the name Christopher. People Kristofer Notable people with the name Kristofer include: *Kristofer Åström, Swedish singer-songwriter * Kristofer Berglund (born 1988), Swedish professi ...

and named after

Pavel German Pavel (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pavel ...

, who caught the specimen.Helgen, K.M. 2005. A new species of murid rodent (genus ''Mayermys'') from south-eastern New Guinea. Mammalian Biology 70(1):61-67.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1971769 Pseudohydromys Rodents of Papua New Guinea Mammals described in 2005 Rodents of New Guinea