Broad-toothed mouse

Broad-toothed mouse
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Tribe: Hydromyini
Genus:
Thomas, 1882
Species:
M. fuscus
Binomial name
Mastacomys fuscus
Thomas, 1882

The broad-toothed mouse or broad-toothed rat (Mastacomys fuscus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.

Distribution and habitat

It is found only in South-eastern Australia. In Victoria live specimens have been caught in the Snowfields, Great Dividing Range (to Cooma in New South Wales),[2] Gippsland Highlands, Otway Ranges and Wilsons Promontory. Specimens located in scats have been found in the Otway plains and East Gippsland.[3] The species is also recorded in buttongrass sedgeland up to 1000 metres in western Tasmania.[4]

Habitat preferences are areas of herbfields, grasslands and forests with minimal shrubs but a dense covering of sedge, grass, herbs and moss, where precipitation does not fall below 1400 mm per year in alpine areas and others 1000 mm at lower altitudes (DCNR 1995 pp. 208–210).

During the Pleistocene, the broad-toothed mouse dominated Badger Island alongside other grassland-dwelling mammals, but over the course of the Holocene, it and other grassland mammals were replaced with a forest-adapted fauna.[5]

References

  1. ^ Woinarski, J.; Burbidge, A.A. (2016). "Mastacomys fuscus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T18563A22429430. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T18563A22429430.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Menkhorst, P.; Knight, F. (2001). A field Guide to the Mammals of Australia. Oxford Press. ISBN 0-19-550870-X.
  3. ^ Department of Conservation and Natural Resources edited by Menkhorst, P,W 1995 "Mammals of Victoria" Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, ISBN 0-19-553733-5
  4. ^ Menkhorst and Knight, 2001 p. 198
  5. ^ McDowell, M. C.; Sim, R.; Sculthorpe, A.; Brook, B. W.; Johnson, Christopher N. (22 April 2025). "Late Pleistocene to Holocene mammal faunal change on a small Landbridge Island in Bass Strait, South-Eastern Australia, and its implications for future reintroductions". Quaternary Research: 1–13. doi:10.1017/qua.2024.64. ISSN 0033-5894. Retrieved 16 June 2025 – via Cambridge Core.


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