Rattus

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Rattus
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene – Recent
Rattus norvegicus 1.jpg
The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus)
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Murinae
Genus: Rattus
Fischer de Waldheim, 1803
Species

64 species

Synonyms

Stenomys Thomas, 1910

Rattus is a genus of muroid rodents, all typically called rats. However, the term rat can also be applied to rodent species outside of this genus.

Species and description[edit]

The best-known Rattus species are the black rat (R. rattus) and the brown rat (R. norvegicus). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over 500 grams (1.1 lb) in the wild.

Taxonomy of Rattus[edit]

The genus Rattus is a member of the giant subfamily Murinae. Several other murine genera are sometimes considered part of Rattus: Lenothrix, Anonymomys, Sundamys, Kadarsanomys, Diplothrix, Margaretamys, Lenomys, Komodomys, Palawanomys, Bunomys, Nesoromys, Stenomys, Taeromys, Paruromys, Abditomys, Tryphomys, Limnomys, Tarsomys, Bullimus, Apomys, Millardia, Srilankamys, Niviventer, Maxomys, Leopoldamys, Berylmys, Mastomys, Myomys, Praomys, Hylomyscus, Heimyscus, Stochomys, Dephomys and Aethomys.[citation needed]

The genus Rattus proper contains 64 extant species. A subgeneric breakdown of the species has been proposed, but does not include all species.(Thomson et al, 2018)

Species[edit]

Genus Rattus – Typical rats

Phylogeny[edit]

The following phylogeny of selected Rattus species is from Pagès, et al. (2010).[1]

Berylmys bowersi

Berylmys berdmorei

Bandicota savilei

Bandicota indica

Rattus 

Rattus nitidus

Rattus norvegicus

Rattus exulans

Rattus andamanensis

Rattus argentiventer

Rattus tiomanicus

Rattus losea

Rattus sp.

Rattus tanezumi

Rattus rattus

References[edit]

  1. ^ Pagès, Marie; Chaval, Yannick; Herbreteau, Vincent; Waengsothorn, Surachit; Cosson, Jean-François; Hugot, Jean-Pierre; Morand, Serge; Michaux, Johan (2010). "Revisiting the taxonomy of the Rattini tribe: a phylogeny-based delimitation of species boundaries". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10: 184. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-184. PMC 2906473. Archived from the original on 2017-07-10.

2. V. Thomson, A. Wiewel, A. Chinen, I. Maryanto, M. H. Sinaga, R. How,K. Aplin, H. Suzuki,Zootaxa2018,4459, 431