Mallomys Thomas 1898

Mallomys Thomas 1898, Novit. Zool., 5: 1.

Type Species: Mallomys rothschildi Thomas 1898

Synonyms: Dendrosminthus de Vis 1907 .

Species and subspecies: 4 species:

Species Mallomys aroaensis De Vis 1907

Species Mallomys gunung Flannery, Aplin, and Groves 1989

Species Mallomys istapantap Flannery, Aplin, and Groves 1989

Species Mallomys rothschildi Thomas 1898

Discussion: Pogonomys Division. Member of the New Guinea Old Endemics (Musser, 1981 c). Tate (1936) included Mallomys, along with Chiropodomys, Crateromys, Lenomys, Phloeomys, Chiruromys, and Pogonomys in the Phloeomyinae, an arrangement followed by Simpson (1945), but no data support such an allocation (Ellerman, 1949 a; our research). Using microcomplement fixation of albumin, Watts and Baverstock (1994 a) placed Mallomys in a clade with Anisomys, Pogonomys, Chiruromys, Coccymys, Hyomys, and Macruromys (their Anisomyini, our Pogonomys Division), but noted that its karyotype (2n = 48) and derived sperm morphology (Breed, 1991) suggest affinities with Hydromys and members of genera we place in the Pseudomys, Xeromys, and Uromys Divisions, which form a clade (their Hydromyini) separate from the New Guinea endemics in the Pogonomys Division. Careful phylogenetic analyses of other data sets (morphological and molecular) are needed to more clearly resolve the cladistic relationship of Mallomys . Revised by Flannery et al. (1989), but actual number of species in genus still unresolved. A separate yet undescribed species occurs on the Arfak Mtns in Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya) (K. Helgen, in litt., 2003). Aplin et al. (1999) reported material probably referable to this same taxon from a late Pleistocene archaeological site on the Ayamaru Plateau, central Bird’s Head Peninsula of Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya).