Apodemus
Temporal range: Late Miocene - recent
Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Tribe: Apodemini
Genus: Apodemus
Kaup, 1829
Type species
Mus agrarius
Species

About 20, see text

Apodemus is a genus of Muridae (true mice and rats). The name is unrelated to that of the Mus genus, instead being derived from the Greek ἀπό-δημος (literally away from home).

Taxonomy

Related to the Ryūkyū spiny rats (Tokudaia) and the prehistoric Rhagamys – and far more distantly to Mus and Malacomys[1] – it includes these species:

Apodemus sensu stricto

Alsomys

Sylvaemus

Karstomys

Incertae sedis

Prehistoric species described from fossil remains include:

  • A. gorafensis (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Italy)[2]
  • A. dominans (Kolzoi 1959)

References

  1. Steppan et al. (2005)
  2. Alexandra van der Geer; George Lyras; John de Vos; Michael Dermitzakis (2011). Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444391282.

Further reading


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