Mus longipilis Gould, 1854

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 365

Mus longipilis Gould, 1854

The Mammals of Australia, part 6, text to pl. 13. (1 December 1854) .

Common name. Long-haired Rat.

Current name. Rattus villosissimus ( Waite, 1898a) , following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Holotype. PA.62 by subsequent determination. Sex indeterminate, skull, skin mount, collected by Thomas Wall, registered in Palmer Register c. 1877. The only entry by Secretary Palmer against PA.62 is “ Mus longipilis Victoria R. W.[sic] Aust.”.

Condition. Incomplete cranium consisting of rostrum, right maxillary tooth row and anterior section of right zygoma; missing braincase, left upper tooth row, and both zygomatic arches. Both dentaries missing ramus, coronoid, condylar and angular processes. Labelled as adult, based on size, we did not determine sex (possibly female, but there is no obvious scrotum or nipples). Skin mount: faded, missing lower lip, two fractures in tail, two bald patches on the dorsal surface behind the ears.

Type locality. Determined by Calaby & Taylor (1974) as “probably Goorogooheeny Billabong, Cooper Creek, southwestern Queensland”, Australia, who also indicate that the collection date was probably 7 September 1847. Gould (1863b) states that the “unique specimen” was obtained during Thomas Wall’s expedition to the “ Victoria River” (now called Cooper Creek ) .

Comments. This taxon and the associated specimens were discussed at length by Taylor & Horner (1973), who arranged for the skull to be extracted from the holotype skin in 1965. Calaby & Taylor (1974) reported a previously overlooked, unpublished manuscript which indicated that two specimens were obtained by Wall from the type locality. Krefft (1864a: 63) lists two adult specimens of Mus longipilis obtained from Wall from “ Victoria River”. The original Palmer Register entry lists PA.20, given as Mus longipilis from “ Victoria River”, flat skin, missing head, indicated as “dried skin in bottle, head torn off”. This specimen is in the collection and is identified as villosissimus by Taylor & Horner (1973) and is a topotype given that Gould based his description on a single specimen loaned to him by the AM. Waite (1898a) recognized that the name Mus longipilis Gould was preoccupied by a Chilean rodent described by Waterhouse in 1837 and so proposed the new name Mus villosissimus .