Galapagous mammal systematics

[Ken Kinman]

John,
    I wouldn't give a lot of creedence to the 1982 paper.  Megaoryzomys is
presently placed in the Oryzomyine tribe (not the Thomasomyine tribe) of
Subfamily Sigmodontinae.  Write to an eminent authority on these groups,
Scott Steppan, at:  steppan at bio.fsu.edu
                             ----Ken

>From: John Grehan <jrg13 at PSU.EDU>
>Reply-To: John Grehan <jrg13 at PSU.EDU>
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>Subject: Galapagous mammal systematics
>Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 03:05:12 -0400
>
>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
>

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