''Brucepattersonius'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

s within the tribe Akodontini from southeastern South America. Also known as brucies, the genus is named after Bruce Patterson, MacArthur Curator at the Department of Zoology (Mammals), at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

History

In 1998,

Philip Hershkovitz Philip Hershkovitz (12 October 1909 – 15 February 1997) was an American mammalogy, mammalogist. Born in Pittsburgh, he attended the Universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan and lived in South America collecting mammals. In 1947, he was appointed ...

described the genus and four species from the Atlantic Forest of southeastern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and also included the previously described species ''B. iheringi'', which had been included in '' Oxymycterus'' and some other genera before. Two years later, Mares and Braun described three additional species from

Misiones Province Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the Provinces of Argentina, 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia, Argentina, Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil ...

, northeastern Argentina, on the basis of a total of three specimens. In 2006, Vilela and others found that two of Hershkovitz's species were in fact identical. More material from Argentina was later reported, but not assigned to species.Vilela, J. F., J. A. de Oliveira, and C. R. Bonvicino (2006). Taxonomic status of ''Brucepattersonius albinasus'' (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae). ''Zootaxa, 1199'', 61-68.

Description

The brucies belong to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Sigmodontinae The rodent subfamily Sigmodontinae includes New World rats and mice, with at least 376 species. Many authorities include the Neotominae and Tylomyinae as part of a larger definition of Sigmodontinae. When those genera are included, the species ...

and the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Akodontini. They are ground-dwellers, and may have a preference for higher altitudes within the rainforest area. Each species is thought to be restricted to a limited area. It is uncertain if they are all distinct species, since many are known from very few specimens, which makes it difficult to know how variable brucies are.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q141986 Rodent genera