Delany's mouse or Delany's swamp mouse (''Delanymys brooksi'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

in the family

Nesomyidae The Nesomyidae are a family (biology), family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of which are native to either continental Africa or to Madagascar. Included in this family are N ...

. It is the only species in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Delanymys'' and the only extant member of subfamily Delanymyinae, which also contains the fossil genus '' Stenodontomys''. It was previously placed in subfamily

Petromyscinae ''Petromyscus'' is a genus of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is so distinct from other rodents that it is placed as the only genus in subfamily Petromyscinae. In previous classifications, ''Delanymys brooksi'' has also been placed in the s ...

, but it is apparently not closely related to ''Petromyscus''. It is found in

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

, and

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are subtropical or tropical high-altitude

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

and

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

Classification

In 2013, a robust muroid phylogeny found ''Delanymys'' sister to ''Mystromys'' + ''Petromyscus'', reviving the affinity of ''Delanymys'' to petromyscines, in addition to ''Mystromys'' (Mystromyinae). Conventionally, all three genera have been placed in their own subfamily; a scheme that creates redundant, non-informative monogeneric subfamilies with respect to extant taxa. More broadly, the clade ''Delanymys'' belongs to (''Delanymys'' + (''Mystromys'' + ''Petromyscus'')) was sister to Dendromurinae (''Steatomys'' + (''Dendromus'' + ''Malacothrix'')) and Cricetomyinae (''Saccostomus'' + (''Beamys'' + ''Cricetomys'')).

References

*Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. *Schenk, J. J., Rowe, K. C. & Steppan, S. J. 2013. Ecological opportunity and incumbency in the diversification of repeated continental colonizations by muroid rodents. Systematic Biology 62, 837–864. Nesomyid rodents Rodents of Africa Mammals described in 1962 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{muroid-stub