Crateromys australis Musser, Heaney, and Rabor 1985

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1310

Crateromys australis Musser, Heaney, and Rabor 1985

Crateromys australis Musser, Heaney, and Rabor 1985 , Am. Mus . Novit., 2821: 3.

Type Locality: Philippines, Surigao del Norte Province, Dinagat Isl, Loreto Municipality, Balitbiton.

Vernacular Names: Dinagat Crateromys.

Distribution: Greater Mindanao Faunal Region in the Philippines. Endemic to Dinagat Isl and known only from the type locality in tropical lowland evergreen rainforest ( Heaney et al., 1999).

Conservation: IUCN – Endangered.

Discussion: Known only by the holotype. People living on the nearby island of Siargao reported seeing an arboreal rat resembling C. australis ( Oliver et al, 1993). Pelage texture and coloration of C. australis is strikingly different from the other species of Crateromys , in some ways recalling species of Batomys ; its molar occlusal patterns also resemble those characterizing Batomys . The latter is much smaller in body size, and terrestrial. A larger sample of C. australis is required from which data can be derived for analyses of morphological and molecular traits to test the following phylogenetic alternatives: 1) the species is a Crateromys unlike any other in the genus, 2) a giant arboreal Batomys , 3) a phylogenetic link between Crateromys and Batomys , or 4) member of a separate clade.