Browsing by Author "Anderson, Robert P."
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Item Open Access A new montane species of spiny pocket mouse (Rodentia, Heteromyidae, Heteromys) from northwestern Costa Rica. American museum novitates ; no. 3509.(New York, NY : American Museum of Natural History, 2006) Anderson, Robert P.; Timm, Robert M.Recent taxonomic works have recognized only two species of spiny pocket mice of the genus Heteromys (Rodentia: Heteromyidae) from Costa Rica. Within Costa Rica, the widespread H. desmarestianus is considered to occur throughout the wet Caribbean lowlands, as well as at middle and high elevations on the Caribbean and Pacific slopes of the country's main montane systems. In contrast, H. oresterus is known from only a few localities at high elevations in the western portion of the Cordillera de Talamanca in central Costa Rica. Our morphological and morphometric analyses of specimens from northwestern Costa Rica reveal the presence of an undescribed species of the genus, which we describe as Heteromys nubicolens. This new species ranges from 750 to 1840 m in elevation in the Cordillera de Tilarán and Cordillera de Guanacaste. Heteromys desmarestianus is found in the surrounding mesic lowlands and foothills. Externally, both species possess dark brown dorsal pelage, but H. nubicolens differs by overall larger size and by distinctive cranial proportions. In most cranial measurements, H. nubicolens is larger than H. desmarestianus; however, H. desmarestianus has a wider interorbital region and a wider braincase. Known populations of H. nubicolens occur in three highland areas (Monteverde, Volcán Rincón de la Vieja-Volcán Santa María, and Cerro Cacao), but populations in these areas are probably disjunct, being separated by intervening lowlands. Heteromys nubicolens is likely widespread throughout the Cordillera de Tilarán and Cordillera de Guanacaste, but its presence in other areas of the country is unlikely. Even after recognizing H. nubicolens as distinct from H. desmarestianus, morphological, karyological, and genetic data indicate that H. desmarestianus represents a species complex. Further research is therefore necessary to evaluate the taxonomic status of this species complex in other regions of the country and other parts of its widespread geographic distribution.Item Open Access A new species of spiny pocket mouse (Heteromyidae, Heteromys) endemic to western Ecuador. American Museum novitates ; no. 3382(New York, NY : American Museum of Natural History, 2002) Anderson, Robert P.; Jarrín-V., Pablo.Whereas previous treatments have considered Heteromys australis the only spiny pocket mouse present in Ecuador, morphological and morphometric analyses of specimens from Ecuador and southwestern Colombia reveal the presence of two species of the genus. Heteromys australis is distributed in evergreen forests from eastern Panamá and western Venezuela through Colombia to extreme northwestern Ecuador, where it inhabits wet, unseasonal areas of the Chocó and adjacent western slopes of the Andes. We here describe a new species, Heteromys teleus, found only in evergreen forests of central-western Ecuador, in areas less mesic and more seasonal than those characteristic of H. australis. Both species possess dark gray dorsal pelage, but H. teleus differs by larger (nonoverlapping) measurements of the hind foot and distinctive cranial proportions. Most notably, the rostrum of the new species is strikingly wide and massive, and the interparietal is narrow and rounded (in contrast to the wide, diamond-shaped interparietal of H. australis). The ranges of the two species together conform to the previously recognized Chocoan evergreen-forest fauna of western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. However, the restriction of H. teleus to evergreen but seasonal forests of the southern Chocó (transitional between the relatively unseasonal evergreen forests of the central Chocó to the north and highly seasonal xeric regions to the south) is unique within currently recognized species of mammals. Biogeographic overviews hint at similar patterns in other groups, but more alpha-taxonomic research is necessary to evaluate mammalian distributional patterns in the region properly. Most suitable habitat for H. teleus has been converted to agricultural uses, and its current distribution is likely restricted to a handful of small-to-medium-sized forest patches.Item Open Access Systematic mammalogy : contributions in honor of Guy G. Musser. (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 331)(New York : American Museum of Natural History., 2009) Voss, Robert S.; Carleton, Michael D.; Anderson, Robert P.; Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquín.; Flynn, Lawrence J. (Lawrence John), 1932-; Gardner, Alfred L.; Giannini, Norberto P.; Almeida, Francisca Cunha.; Simmons, Nancy B.; Heaney, Lawrence R.; Balete, Danilo S., 1960-; Rickart, Eric A.; Veluz, M. Josefa.; Jansa, Sharon A.; Helgen, K. M. (Kristofer M.); Helgen, Lauren E.; Holden, Mary Ellen.; Levine, Rebecca S.; Jenkins, Paulina D.; Lunde, Darrin P.; Moncrieff, Clive B.; Myers, Philip, 1947-; Catzeflis, François.; Carmignotto, Ana Paula.; Barreiro Rodríguez, Josefina.; Wahlert, John H.; Musser, Guy G.Contents: They sort out like nuts and bolts : a scientific biography of Guy G. Musser / Michael D. Carleton -- Taxonomy, distribution, and natural history of the genus Heteromys (Rodentia: Heteromyidae) in central and eastern Venezuela, with the description of a new species from the Cordillera de la Costa / Robert P. Anderson and Eliécer E. Gutiérrez -- Review of the Oryzomys couesi complex (Rodentia: Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae) in western Mexico / Michael D. Carleton and Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales -- The antiquity of Rhizomys and independent acquisition of fossorial traits in subterranean muroids / Lawrence J. Flynn -- A new species of Reithrodontomys, subgenus Aporodon (Cricetidae: Neotominae), from the highlands of Costa Rica, with comments on Costa Rican and Panamanian Reithrodontomys / Alfred L. Gardner and Michael D. Carleton -- Phylogenetic relationships of harpyionycterine megabats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) / Norberto P. Giannini, Francisca Cunha Almeida, and Nancy B. Simmons -- A new genus and species of small "tree-mouse" (Rodentia, Muridae) related to the Philippine giant cloud rats / Lawrence R. Heaney, Danilo S. Balete, Eric A. Rickart, M. Josefa Veluz, and Sharon A. Jansa -- Biodiversity and biogeography of the moss-mice of New Guinea : a taxonomic revision of Pseudohydromys (Muridae: Murinae) / Kristofer M. Helgen and Lauren E. Helgen -- Systematic revision of sub-Saharan African dormice (Rodentia: Gliridae). Part 2, Description of a new species of Graphiurus from the central Congo Basin, including morphological and ecological niche comparisons with G. crassicaudatus and G. lorraineus / Mary Ellen Holden and Rebecca S. Levine -- Descriptions of new species of Crocidura (Soricomorpha: Soricidae) from mainland Southeast Asia, with synopses of previously described species and remarks on biogeography / Paulina D. Jenkins, Darrin P. Lunde, and Clive B. Moncrieff -- The six opossums of Félix de Azara : identification, taxonomic history, neotype designations, and nomenclatural recommendations / Robert S. Voss, Philip Myers, François Catzeflis, Ana Paula Carmignotto, and Josefina Barreiro -- Skull and dentition of Willeumys korthi, nov. gen. et sp., a cricetid rodent from the Oligocene (Orellan) of Wyoming / John H. Wahlert.Item Open Access Taxonomy, distribution, and natural history of the genus Heteromys (Rodentia, Heteromyidae) in western Venezuela : with the description of a dwarf species from the Península de Paraguaná. American Museum novitates ; no. 3396(New York, NY : American Museum of Natural History, 2003) Anderson, Robert P.Heteromys anomalus is widely distributed along the Caribbean coast of South America and was generally considered the only spiny pocket mouse present in Venezuela until H. australis was reported recently from the Cordillera de Mérida. Here, I revise the spiny pocket mice of western Venezuela and compare specimens from the semi-insular Península de Paraguaná with samples from throughout the distributional area of H. anomalus. Morphological comparisons with all other species of the genus suggest that the Heteromys from Paraguaná are closely related to H. anomalus, but univariate and multivariate analyses show that they are much smaller than samples of H. anomalus. In addition, adults from Paraguaná display differences in cranial shape when compared with adults of H. anomalus. Hence, specimens from Paraguaná are here described as a new species, Heteromys oasicus, and taxonomic treatments of H. anomalus and H. australis in western Venezuela are also provided. Although the original geographic context of this case of dwarfism in body size is unknown, H. oasicus currently appears to be isolated in mesic vegetation on the low Cerro Santa Ana and Fila de Monte Cano, which lie in a matrix of tropical thorn forest. The new species represents one of the few vertebrates considered endemic to Paraguaná, but basic inventories and taxonomic studies are not yet complete in the region.