The Puebla deer mouse (''Peromyscus mekisturus'') is a species 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 ...

in the family

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, and has m ...

. Only two specimens are known, both from

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, with the last collected in 1947. It is therefore possible that the species is now

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

, although it is currently listed as Critically Endangered by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. Advanced studies have identified that ''P. mekisturus'' is a sister species of ''

Reithrodontomys ''Reithrodontomys'' is the genus of groove-toothed New World harvest mice. Species This genus contains these species: *Baker's small-toothed harvest mouse, ''Reithrodontomys bakeri'' *Short-nosed harvest mouse, ''Reithrodontomys brevirostris'' * ...

''. The study used mitogenome phylogeny to identify the sister species of ''P. mekisturus''. Recent genomic analysis further supports this placement, suggesting that ''P. mekisturus'' belongs to an undescribed genus of cricetid rodents. Therefore calling for the need of a taxonomic re-evaluation of this species.

References

*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. *Castañeda-Rico, S., León-Paniagua, L., Edwards, C. W., & Maldonado, J. E. (2020). Ancient DNA From Museum Specimens and Next Generation Sequencing Help Resolve the Controversial Evolutionary History of the Critically Endangered Puebla Deer Mouse. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00094 Peromyscus Mammals described in 1898 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Clinton Hart Merriam Castañeda-Rico, S (Castaneda-Rico, Susette) , , , ; Edwards, CW (Edwards, Cody W.) , ; Hawkins, MTR (Hawkins, Melissa T. R.) , ; Maldonado, JE (Maldonado, Jesus E.) , , , (provided by Clarivate) Source FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION Volume10 DOI10.3389/fevo.2022.930356 {{Peromyscus-stub