Saccostomus Peters 1846

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 930-955 : 933

Saccostomus Peters 1846

Saccostomus Peters 1846 , Bericht Verhandl. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 11: 258.

Type Species: Saccostomus campestris Peters 1846

Synonyms: Eosaccomys Palmer 1903 .

Species and subspecies: 2 species:

Species Saccostomus campestris Peters 1846

Species Saccostomus mearnsi Heller 1910

Discussion: Saccostomurini, new rank. Ellerman (1941) thought that all nominal forms would prove to be races of the single species S. campestris , a speculation widely and uncritically observed in later classifications and faunal reports (e.g., Delany, 1975; Ellerman et al., 1953; Kingdon, 1974 b; Misonne, 1974). Hubert (1978 a), however, marshalled karyotypic and morphological evidence that differentiates an eastern African species ( S. mearnsi ) from a southern African one ( S. campestris ), as earlier intimated by G. M. Allen and Lawrence (1936) and later reinforced by Denys (1988) in her morphological study of Tanzanian populations. Relationship of the two living species to the middle Pliocene S. major evaluated by Denys (1987 a, 1988), who placed their divergence some time after 3.7 million years ago. Geological range from middle Pliocene through the Pleistocene of Tanzania ( Denys, 1988) and Plio-Pleistocene of Namibia ( Senut et al., 1992).