Echiothrix Gray, 1867

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 591

Echiothrix Gray, 1867 . Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867:599.

TYPE SPECIES: Echiothrix leucura Gray, 1867 .

SYNONYMS: Craurothrix .

COMMENTS: Thomas (1898b:397) explained why Echiothrix is the proper name and not Craurothrix , which he proposed thinking Echiothrix was preoccupied. Based upon shared cranial features, Thomas (1898b) thought Echiothrix was related to the Philippine Rhynchomys and placed them in the Rhynchomyinae. Later workers disagreed (see summary in Musser, 1990), and, except to recognize that Echiothrix is an Old Endemic of Sulawesi ( Musser, 1981c), no one has discovered its closest phylogenetic ally. Spermatozoal morphology resembles that of Margaretamys , Maxomys , and in some aspects even Rattus, but is ambiguous in illuminating possible phylogenetic alliances ( Breed and Musser, 1991). Revision of the genus required to determine if N and C Sulawesian samples represent one or two species.