''Psammomys'' 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 ...

. The etymology of the genus name derives from the two

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

words (), meaning "sand", and (), meaning "mouse, rat". The complete nuclear DNA genome of one ''Psamomys'' species, ''P. obesus'', has been sequenced in 2017. It contains the following species: *

Fat sand rat The fat sand rat (''Psammomys obesus'') is a terrestrial mammal from the gerbil subfamily that is mostly found in North Africa and the Middle East, ranging from Mauritania to the Arabian Peninsula. This species usually lives in sandy deserts, but ...

, ''Psammomys obesus'' *

Thin sand rat The thin sand rat or lesser sand rat (''Psammomys vexillaris'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It has also been previously named the pale sand rat based on work published by Oldfield Thomas in 1925. It is found in Algeria, Libya, ...

, ''Psammomys vexillaris''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q64524 Rodent genera Taxa named by Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar Taxonomy articles created by Polbot