Crunomys Thomas 1897

Crunomys Thomas 1897, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., 14 (6): 393.

Type Species: Crunomys fallax Thomas 1897

Species and subspecies: 4 species:

Species Crunomys celebensis Musser 1982

Species Crunomys fallax Thomas 1897

Species Crunomys melanius Thomas 1907

Species Crunomys suncoides Rickart, Heaney, Tabaranza, Jr., and Balete 1998

Discussion: Crunomys Division. Revised by Musser (1982 c) and reviewed by Rickart et al. (1998). An Old Endemic of the Philippines (Musser and Heaney, 1992) and Sulawesi (Musser, 1981 c; Musser and Durden, 2002). Thomas (1898 b) placed the type species in Hydromyinae, but after describing C. melanius was unsure whether Crunomys should be placed in Hydromyinae or Murinae (Thomas, 1907 c); Ellerman (1941) and Misonne (1969) thought it to be murine. Using morphological data, Musser and Heaney (1992) postulated a close phylogenetic link between Crunomys and the Philippine Archboldomys, but phylogenetic analyses of complete mtDNA cytochrome b sequences for 13 of 16 genera of endemic Philippine murines indicated that Philippine Crunomys is not part of the clade containing Archboldomys or any other Philippine endemic but instead is more closely related to Sundaic genera (Jansa and Heaney, 2001), a phyletic pattern also supported by chromosomal morphology (Rickart and Heaney, 2002). Crunomys may belong to an ancient group that diverged early from a Miocene Progonomys like murine progenitor.