Rattus nativitatis Thomas 1888

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1476

Rattus nativitatis Thomas 1888

Rattus nativitatis Thomas 1888 , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1888: 533.

Type Locality: Christmas Isl ( Australia).

Vernacular Names: Christmas Island Rat.

Distribution: Endemic to Christmas Isl, 320 km south of Java in the Indian Ocean; suspected to be extinct by 1908 ( Andrews, 1909) and is now considered extinct ( Flannery, 1990 c).

Conservation: IUCN – Extinct.

Discussion: Rattus species group unresolved. For Thomas (1888 b), the morphology of R. nativitatis distanced it from any other described species of Rattus . Ellerman (1941) first listed the species as the only member of the " nativitatis " group in subgenus Rattus , then placed it and R. macleari in same group within subgenus Stenomys of Rattus ( Ellerman, 1949 a) . Chasen (1940) thought R. nativitatis to be without close relatives in Malaysia, but Misonne (1969) placed it close to rajah in the subgenus Leopoldamys of Rattus , an allocation rejected by Musser (1981 b) and Musser and Newcomb (1983). Four hypotheses about phylogenetic position of R. nativitatis require testing: 1) it is most closely related to R. macleari , the other endemic on Christmas Isl; 2) it is not related to R. macleari but to other species of Rattus ; 3) it is a member of Rattus but phylogenetically isolated from all other species; 4) it is not even a member of Rattus .