Zyzomys pedunculatus (Waite 1896)

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 : 1521

Zyzomys pedunculatus (Waite 1896)

[Zyzomys] pedunculatus (Waite 1896) , Rept. Horn Sci. Exped. Cent. Aust., Zool., Vol. 2: 395.

Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, Alice Springs, but this locality is suspect ( Kitchener, 1989; see also Mahoney and Richardson, 1988:191).

Vernacular Names: Central Australian Rock Rat.

Synonyms: Zyzomys brachyotis (Waite 1896) .

Distribution: C Australia; Northern Territory ( Watts and Aslin, 1981:143; Wurst, 1995:625).

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I; U.S. ESA – Endangered; IUCN – Critically Endangered.

Discussion: Rare and restricted to rocks. Distribution of fossils indicated species "may once have extended across the rocky ranges of central Western Australia, through the Hamersleys to the coast" ( Watts and Aslin, 1981:143). This "is either one of Australia’s rarest rodents or its most recently extinct mammal.... The last specimen was collected in 1960 by a stockman in the Western MacDonnell Ranges near Mount Leibig, about 300 kilometres west of Alice Springs, while it was attempting to break into the camp food supplies." ( Wurst, 1995:624). Recently the species has been rediscovered living in two national parks in the Northern Territory ( Wurst, 1997, who also provided first photograph of the live animal).