''Melomys'' is a genus of

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 na ...

s 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 ...

. Members of this genus live in the wet habitats of northern Australia (

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

and islands of the

Indonesian archipelago The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands. History ...

Species

The genus contains the following species: *

Dusky mosaic-tailed rat The dusky mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys aerosus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. Distribution This rat species is endemic to Seram Island of the Maluku Islands archipelago, in Indonesia. It is found from . It is currently known ...

(''Melomys aerosus'') * Rossel Island mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys arcium'') * Bannister's rat (''Melomys bannisteri'') *

Bougainville mosaic-tailed rat The Bougainville mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys bougainville'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officia ...

(''Melomys bougainville'') * Grassland mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys burtoni'') * Cape York mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys capensis'') *

Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat The fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat, or fawn-footed melomys (''Melomys cervinipes'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found along eastern coastal regions of Australia. The upper parts of this species are a sandy-brown colour, ...

(''Melomys cervinipes'') *

Yamdena mosaic-tailed rat The Yamdena mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys cooperae'') is a species of rat belonging to the family Muridae. It was first described in 1995 from specimens found on Yamdena Island in Indonesia. No other examples of this species have been found; as ...

(''Melomys cooperae'') *

Dollman's mosaic-tailed rat Dollman's melomys (''Melomys dollmani'') is a species of rodent from the family Muridae. It lives in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea at an elevation of at least and on the slopes of Mount Hagen and Mount Sisa. However, it is not foun ...

(''Melomys dollmani'') *

Manusela mosaic-tailed rat The Manusela mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys fraterculus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Indonesia. It lives in the rainforests on the island of Seram in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of I ...

(''Melomys fraterculus'') *

Snow Mountains grassland mosaic-tailed rat The Snow Mountains grassland mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys frigicola''), also known as the Snow Mountains grassland melomys, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is endemic to the mountainous west part of the island of New Guinea, wher ...

(''Melomys frigicola'') *

Seram long-tailed mosaic-tailed rat The Seram long-tailed mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys fulgens''), also known as the Seram long-tailed melomys, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only on the south coast of the island of Seram in Indonesia. At one time it was ...

(''Melomys fulgens'') *

Riama mosaic-tailed rat The Riama mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys howi''), is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only on the island of Riama in Indonesia, a small island to the west of Selaru in the Tanimbar Islands. Very little is known about this sp ...

(''Melomys howi'') * White-bellied mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys leucogaster'') *

Papua grassland mosaic-tailed rat The Papua grassland mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys lutillus''), also known as the grassland melomys, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is endemic to the island of New Guinea where it is present from sea level to altitudes of about . ...

(''Melomys lutillus'') * Manus Island mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys matambuai'') *

Obi mosaic-tailed rat The Obi mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys obiensis'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian a ...

(''Melomys obiensis'') *

Pavel's Seram mosaic-tailed rat The Pavel's Seram mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys paveli'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only on the south coast of the island of Seram in Indonesia. At one time it was thought to be a subspecies of the black-tailed mosa ...

(''Melomys paveli'') *

Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat The Bramble Cay melomys, or Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys rubicola''), is a recently extinct species of rodent in the family Muridae and subfamily Murinae. It was an endemic species of the isolated Bramble Cay, a low-lying vegetat ...

(''Melomys rubicola'')† – considered the only mammal endemic to the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and represents the first documented mammal extinction (2016, confirmed 2019) due to climate change *

Black-tailed mosaic-tailed rat The black-tailed mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys rufescens'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is endemic to the island of New Guinea. Names It is known as alks in the Kalam language of Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (a ...

(''Melomys rufescens'') * Buka Island mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys spechti'') *

Short-tailed Talaud mosaic-tailed rat The short-tailed Talaud mosaic-tailed rat or the short-tailed Talaud melomys (''Melomys caurinus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is endemic to Karakelong and Salebabu in the Talaud Islands in Indonesia where it occurs in fore ...

(''Melomys caurinus'') * Long-tailed Talaud mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys talaudium'')

References

Rodent genera Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Melomys-stub