Mus fieldi Waite, 1896

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 : 364

Mus fieldi Waite, 1896

Report of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia, Zoology part 2, 403, plate 26, fig. 4. (February 1896) .

Common name. Shark Bay Mouse.

Current name. Pseudomys fieldi ( Waite, 1896) , following Jackson & Groves (2015), no subspecies recognized.

Holotype. M.1069 by subsequent determination. Female adult, part skull, both dentaries, and body in alc., registered in the AM on 11 April 1896 as “ Mus fieldi Alice Springs , presented by W. Baldwin Spencer ”, and “TYPE” written and initialed by Waite in the comments column. Waite (1896) states that the type was collected by J. Field in June 1895. Old paper tag tied to left pes states “Z.”.

Condition. Incomplete cranium which is in pieces, missing most of braincase, missing both upper tooth rows, missing both zygomatic arches. Left dentary missing angular process; right dentary missing ramus. Body in alc.: fur slip on both sides. The age and the sex were not determined from the specimen.

Type locality. Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

Comments. Waite stated in the original description that a single specimen was available, and noted that the skull was “so utterly crushed that not a single measurement could be made”.