Meriones (Pallasiomys) grandis Cabrera 1907

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 : 1235

Meriones (Pallasiomys) grandis Cabrera 1907

Meriones (Pallasiomys) grandis Cabrera 1907 , Bol. Real Soc. Espanola Hist. Nat., Madrid, 7: 175.

Type Locality: Morocco, Marrakesh.

Vernacular Names: Moroccan Jird.

Distribution: Mediterranean littoral from Morocco through N Algeria to Tunisia (see Pavlinov, 2000).

Discussion: Subgenus Pallasiomys . Moroccan population mapped and reviewed by Aulagnier and Thevenot (1986, as M. shawi ). Pavlinov et al. (1990) recognized grandis as a species, but Aulagnier and Thevenot (1986) included it in M. shawi . Geographic ranges of M. shawi and M.grandis broadly overlap through E Morocco, N Algeria, and Tunisia, and examples of both species have been collected at a few locations; see Pavlinov (2000) who revised the species and documented morphometric and other traits distinguishing it from M. shawi . Fragments identified as M. shawi are reported from possible middle Pleistocene sediments at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco ( Amani and Geraads, 1993); whether these fossils are shawi or grandis has to be determined.