Subspecies Rattus tunneyi tunneyi (Thomas, 1904)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Mus tunneyi Thomas, O. 1904. On a collection of mammals made by Mr J.T. Tunney in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory of South Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 11: 222-229 [223].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 4.1.3.30 ♀ skin & skull, Mary River, NT.
• Mus woodwardi Thomas, O. 1908. New bats and rodents in the British Museum collection. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8 2: 370-375 [374].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 5.1.9.1 ♀ skin & skull, Lagrange Bay, WA.
• Rattus culmorum austrinus Thomas, O. 1921. Notes on Australasian rats, with a selection of lectotypes for Australasian Muridae. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 9 8: 425-433 [427] [Taylor, J.M. & Horner, B.E. 1973. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 98. Systematics of native Australian Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 150: 1–130 [103], believe Kangaroo Is. and Port Lincoln, Eyre Peninsula are the two most probable choices for the type locality; they consider the mainland possibility to be fully as likely as Kangaroo Is. in terms of the collecting itinerary of J.B. Harvey (the donor of the holotype) and perhaps even more likely on ecological grounds. Neither Hope, J.H., Lampert, R.J., Edmondson, E., Smith, M.J. & Van Tets, G.F. 1977. Late Pleistocene faunal remains from Seton rock shelter, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Journal of Biogeography 4: 363–385, Inns, R.W., Aitken, P.F. & Ling, J.K. 1979. Mammals. pp. 91–102 in Tyler, M.J., Twidale, C.R. & Ling, J.K. (eds). Natural History of Kangaroo Island. Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia, nor Pledge. N.S. 1979. Fossil vertebrates. pp. 123–127 in Tyler, M.J., Twidale, C.R. & Ling, J.K. (eds). Natural History of Kangaroo Island. Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia mention R. c. austrinus in their accounts of mammals found on Kangaroo Is.].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 55.12.24.336 ♂ skin & skull, ?Eyre Peninsula, SA (as South Australia, probably Kangaroo Island).

  Type locality references:

  Taylor, J.M. & Horner, B.E. 1973. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 98. Systematics of native Australian Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 150: 1-130 [103] (believe Kangaroo Is. and Port Lincoln, Eyre Peninsula are the two most probable choices for the type locality; they consider the mainland possibility to be fully as likely as Kangaroo Is. in terms of the collecting itinerary of J.B. Harvey (the donor of the holotype) and perhaps even more likely on ecological grounds. Neither Hope, J.H., Lampert, R.J., Edmondson, E., Smith, M.J. & Van Tets, G.F. 1977. Late Pleistocene faunal remains from Seton rock shelter, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Journal of Biogeography 4: 363–385, Inns, R.W., Aitken, P.F. & Ling, J.K. 1979. Mammals. pp. 91–102 in Tyler, M.J., Twidale, C.R. & Ling, J.K. (eds). Natural History of Kangaroo Island. Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia, nor Pledge. N.S. 1979. Fossil vertebrates. pp. 123–127 in Tyler, M.J., Twidale, C.R. & Ling, J.K. (eds). Natural History of Kangaroo Island. Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia, mention R. c. austrinus in their accounts of mammals found on Kangaroo Is.).

  Secondary source:

   Taylor, J.M. & Horner, B.E. 1973. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 98. Systematics of native Australian Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 150: 1-130; Hope, J.H., Lampert, R.J., Edmondson, E., Smith, M.J. & Van Tets, G.F. 1977. Late Pleistocene faunal remains from Seton rock shelter, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Journal of Biogeography 4: 363-385; Inns, R.W., Aitken, P.F. & Ling, J.K. 1979. Mammals. pp. 91-102 in Tyler, M.J., Twidale, C.R. & Ling, J.K. (eds). Natural History of Kangaroo Island. Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia.; Pledge. N.S. 1979. Fossil vertebrates. pp. 123-127 in Tyler, M.J., Twidale, C.R. & Ling, J.K. (eds). Natural History of Kangaroo Island. Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia.
• Rattus melvilleus Thomas, O. 1921. Notes on Australasian rats, with a selection of lectotypes for Australasian Muridae. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 9 8: 425-433 [427].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 13.6.28.33 ♂ skin & skull, Biro, Apsley Strait, Melville Is., NT.
• Rattus tunneyi dispar Brazenor, C.W. 1936. Two new rats from Central Australia. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 9: 5-8 pl. 1 [5].

  Type data:

   Holotype NMV C4908 (=R12642) ♂ skin & skull, Alice Springs, NT.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mahoney, J.A. in Walton, D.W. (ed.) 1988. Zoological Catalogue of Australia Volume 5. Mammalia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service x 274 pp. [Date published 13/Apr/1988] [188]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, Qld, SA, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Ranges (CR), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Gawler (GAW), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Yalgoo (YAL)

Ecological Descriptors

Burrower, coastal, folivore, granivore, open forest, subtropical, terrestrial, tussock grassland.

History of changes