The dusky rat (Rattus colletti) is an indigenous species of rodent in the family Muridae found in Australia.
Dusky rat | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Muridae |
Genus: | Rattus |
Species: | R. colletti
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Binomial name | |
Rattus colletti (Thomas, 1904)
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Synonyms[2] | |
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Name
editKunwinjku people of western Arnhem Land call this animal mulbbu, a name also applied to other rodent species.[3] It was first described in 1904 by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas.[4]
Range
editThe rat is found only in the monsoonal subcoastal plains of the Northern Territory, Australia.
Predation
editThe dusky rat is eaten according to Peterson Nganjmirra[5][page needed] and is prey to the Australian water python (Liasis fuscus) also ranging across northern Australia.
References
edit- ^ Oakwood, M.; Zichy-Woinarski, J. (2016). "Rattus colletti". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T19326A22444443. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T19326A22444443.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Jackson, Stephen; Groves, Colin (2015). Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. Csiro. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-4863-0013-6.
- ^ "mulbbu". Bininj Kunwok Dictionary. Bininj Kunwok Regional Language Centre. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
- ^ Thomas, O. (1904). "New species of Pteropus, Mus, and Pogonomys from the Australian region". Novitates Zoologicae. 11: 597–600. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.26839.
- ^ Reverend Peterson Nganjmirra, personal comment in Goodfellow's, Fauna of Kakadu and the Top End, 1993 ISBN 9781862543065
- Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1468. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.