Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat

Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat
Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat, among other fauna of Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Genus: Melomys
Species: M. cervinipes
Binomial name
Melomys cervinipes
(Gould, 1852)
Melomys cervinipes

The fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat, or fawn-footed melomys (Melomys cervinipes) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Australia.

This species has long been commonly known by the descriptive English common name fawn-footed melomys, but during the 1990s there was a push for such names to be replaced with indigenous Australian names. Accordingly, in 1995 the Australian Nature Conservation Agency published recommendations for the common names of rodents. They compiled two indigenous Australian names for this species: Corrill, recorded from Stradbroke Island; and Cunduoo, recorded from the vicinity of the Richmond River. They recommended the adoption of the former of these names, but with the orthography Korril.[2] However this recommendation was not prescriptive, and it remains to be seen to what extent it will be adopted.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melomys cervinipes.
  1. Burnett, S. & Winter, J. (2008). Melomys cervinipes. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  2. Braithwaite R. W.; et al. (1995). Australian names for Australian rodents. Australian Nature Conservation Agency. ISBN 0-642-21373-9.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, September 20, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.