The Atlantic Forest climbing mouse (''Rhipidomys mastacalis'') is an

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

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 ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the family

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At over 870 species, it is either the largest or second-largest family ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. It is found in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

at elevations from

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

to 1500 m. It utilizes the ground more than the understory in isolated forests (highland marshes) however this utilization changes in certain areas of the Atlantic Forest where it prefers to use the vegetation canopy. Its

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is discerned by de ...

is 2n = 44, FN = 74–80. It is sometimes also referred to as the long-tailed climbing mouse. '' Rhipidomys macrurus'' is similarly sometimes commonly known as the "long-tailed rhipidomys", while rodents of genus ''

Vandeleuria ''Vandeleuria'' is a small genus of rodent from Asia with only three species. It is the only member of the tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide us ...

'' are also commonly known as long-tailed climbing mice.

References

Further reading