Pseudomys higginsi Trouessart 1897

Pseudomys higginsi Trouessart 1897, Cat. Mamm. Viv. Foss., Vol. 1: 473.

Type Locality: Australia, Tasmania, Kentishbury; see Mahoney and Richardson (1988:177).

Vernacular Names: Long-tailed Pseudomys.

Synonyms: Pseudomys australiensis Wakefield 1972; Pseudomys leucopus (Higgins and Petterd 1881) .

Distribution: Australia; extant population known only from Tasmania (Rounsevell et al., 1991); represented on mainland in Victoria and E New South Wales by late Pleistocene samples (Wakefield, 1972 b).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Spermatozoal morphology (Breed, 1983) and electrophoretic data (Baverstock et al., 1981) placed P. higginsi with most other species of Pseudomys, but phallic anatomy (Lidicker and Brylski, 1987) clustered P. higginsi with P. australis, P. gouldii, and P. nanus . Wakefield (1972 b) described australiensis as a subspecies based on late Pleistocene fossils. Reviewed by Watts and Aslin (1981) and Green (1995).