Galapagous mammal systematics

[John Grehan]

If anyone on this list might be working in the appropriate area I would
be interested to hear if there have been any developments in the determination
of the phylogenetic relationships of the extinct Galapagos rodent
Megaoryzomys curioi.

According to the paper by Steadman and Clayton 1982, this taxon is related
to the Andean genus Thomasomys (actually to species within the genus which
would render Thomasomys paraphyletic I think). I understand, however, that the
 characters used for assessing this relationship such as dentition and
palate length are
primitive, so uninformative - rendering the current status of the Galapagos
relationships totally adrift. However, if anyone knows of any developments that
shed light on the situation and provides a well founded assessment of
relationship
I would be most interested to know.

John Grehan