New Ireland forest rat

New Ireland forest rat
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Genus:	Rattus
Species:	R. sanila
Binomial name
	Rattus sanila; Flannery & White, 1991

The New Ireland forest rat (Rattus sanila) is a large rodent in the family Muridae. It is endemic to New Ireland, in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea.

Description

Ratus sanila is known only by the discovery of some 7 subfossil fragments of jaw dated to over 3000 years old. The molars of this particular species are broad and have a very complex structure of the cusp. The diastema is also longer than in other species of the genus Rattus suggesting a separate species which may be a relict of an archaic or ancestral dispersal of Rattus stock to New Guinea and Australia. This species probably still survives in some primary forest.^[1]

References

^ Wilson, edited by Don E.; Reeder, DeeAnn M. (2005). Mammal species of the world : a taxonomic and geographic reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-8221-4. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)

External links

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[1] Wilson, edited by Don E.; Reeder, DeeAnn M. (2005). Mammal species of the world : a taxonomic and geographic reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-8221-4. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)

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