Melomys cervinipes (Gould, 1852)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 616

Melomys cervinipes (Gould, 1852) . Mamm. Aust., pt. 4, 3:pl. 14.

TYPE LOCALITY: Australia, Queensland, Stradbrook Isl .

DISTRIBUTION: Australia; extant range is closed forest and more open habitat along the E Australian coast from Cooktown region of Cape York in Queensland south to Gosford area of New South Wales ( Watts and Aslin, 1981:79). Late Pleistocene specimens indicated distribution once extended farther south to the Pyramids Cave region in Victoria ( Wakefield, 1972a).

SYNONYMS: banfieldi , bunya, eboreus, limicauda , pallidus .

COMMENTS: Anatomy of male reproductive tract and spermatozoa reported by Breed and Sarafis (1978), Morrissey and Breed (1982), and Breed (1984, 1986). Chromosomal morphology, G-banding homologies, and results of electrophoretic analyses presented by Baverstock et al. (1977 c, 1980, 1981, 1983b), who (1980) reported that M. cervinipes was phylogenetically close to M. capensis , but electrophoretically distant, having experienced a rapid rate of electrophoretic evolution relative to that found in M. capensis and M. burtoni .