The Puntilla tuco-tuco (''Ctenomys coludo'') is a species of rodent in the family Ctenomyidae. It is endemic to central Argentina. The common name of the species comes from the municipality of La Puntilla at the type locality. It was first described by the British zoologist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appoin ...

in 1920 after being collected by Emilio Budin, an Argentine specimen collector who worked with Oldfield Thomas.

Taxonomy

This species is treated by some authorities as

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

ous with the

tawny tuco-tuco The tawny tuco-tuco (''Ctenomys fulvus'') is a species of burrowing rodent in the family Ctenomyidae. It is found in the desert regions of northern Chile and adjoining areas of Argentina. Description The tawny tuco-tuco grows to a length of , an ...

(''Ctenomys fulvus''), a species found in Chile, and further investigation needs to be done before its affinities can be resolved.

Description

The Puntilla tuco-tuco is a fairly large species of tuco-tuco. The type specimen has a head-and-body length of and a tail length of . It is an even pale colour and is distinguished from other tuco-tucos living in the same area by the long tail, the narrow skull and the broad auditory bullae (hollow bony structures on the skull that enclose parts of the middle and inner ear). The Catamarca tuco-tuco (''Ctenomys knighti'') is a darker colour and Foch's tuco-tuco (''Ctenomys fochi'') is smaller.

Status

This species is known only from the location in La Puntilla in the

Catamarca Province Catamarca () is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province had a population of 334,568 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km2. Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are (clockwise, fr ...

of Argentina from which it was first collected, at an elevation of about above sea level. Not enough is known about the species, its population size and trend, to enable the International Union for Conservation of Nature to assess its conservation status, so it has been rated as "

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1762991 Mammals of Argentina Tuco-tucos Endemic fauna of Argentina Mammals described in 1920 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas