''Cerradomys'' is a

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 ...

oryzomyine Oryzomyini is a tribe of rodents in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the family Cricetidae. It includes about 120 species in about thirty genera,Weksler et al., 2006, table 1 distributed from the eastern United States to the southernmost parts of S ...

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 ...

s from eastern

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, and central

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 ...

found in

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

Caatinga Caatinga () is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" comes from the Tupi word '' ka'atinga'', meaning "white forest" or "white vegetat ...

and

Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or simply Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland tropical dry broadleaf forest natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion o ...

habitats. The species in this genus have historically been placed in ''

Oryzomys ''Oryzomys'' is a genus of semiaquatic rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini living in southern North America and far northern South America. It includes eight species, two of which—the marsh rice rat (''O. palustris'') of the United States and ...

'', but according to

cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

research, they are not more closely related to the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of ''Oryzomys'' than species in some other genera are. Its sister group may be a clade of oryzomyines living in open or aquatic habitats, comprising, among others, ''

Aegialomys ''Aegialomys'' is a genus of oryzomyine rodents from the lowlands and mountains of western Peru and Ecuador, including the Galápagos Islands. The species in this genus have historically been placed in ''Oryzomys'', but according to cladistic re ...

'', ''

Nectomys ''Nectomys'' is a genus of rodent in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. Musser and Carleton, 2005. It is closely related to '' Amphinectomys'' and was formerly considered congeneric with '' Sigmodontomys''. It consists of five species, wh ...

'' and ''

Sigmodontomys ''Sigmodontomys'' is a genus of rodent in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It is related to ''Nectomys ''Nectomys'' is a genus of rodent in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. Musser and Carleton, 2005. It is closely related t ...

''. ''

Sooretamys angouya ''Sooretamys angouya'', also known as the rat-headed rice rat,Duff and Lawson, 2004 and Paraguayan rice rat, is a rodent species from South America.Musser and Carleton, 2005 It is found in northeastern Argentina, southern Brazil and Paraguay in fo ...

'', also formerly in ''Oryzomys'', is another relative; it has been placed in the same group as the species of ''Cerradomys'' in the past. The generic name ''Cerradomys'' is a compound of the word "Cerrado" and the Ancient Greek ''mys'' "mouse" and therefore means "Cerrado mouse". The dorsal pelage is brownish, the ventral pelage, greyish. It has small ears and a relatively long tail. There are crowns of hair on the hindfeet at the bases of the claws. In addition to its external classification, the internal classification of the group is also subject to change. Until 2002, all members of the group were placed in a single species, then called ''Oryzomys subflavus'', but since then, eight new species have been described, often on the basis of

karyotypic 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 ...

differences, but two of these later turned out to represent the same species. The genus currently contains the following species: *'' Cerradomys akroai'' *'' Cerradomys goytaca'' *'' Cerradomys langguthi'' *'' Cerradomys maracajuensis'' *'' Cerradomys marinhus'' *'' Cerradomys scotti'' (including ''Oryzomys andersoni'') *'' Cerradomys subflavus'' *'' Cerradomys vivoi''

References

*Musser, G.G. and Carleton, M.D. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894–1531 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.)
''Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. 3rd ed''
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. *Percequillo, A.R., Hingst-Zaher, E. and Bonvicino, C.R. 2008
Systematic review of genus ''Cerradomys'' Weksler, Percequillo and Voss, 2006 (Rodentia: Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae: Oryzomyini), with description of two new species from Eastern Brazil
''American Museum Novitates'' 3622:1–46. *Tavares, W.C., Pessôa, L.M. and Gonçalves, P.R. 2011
New species of ''Cerradomys'' from coastal sandy plains of southeastern Brazil (Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae)
(subscription required). ''Journal of Mammalogy'' 92(3):645–658. ** {{Taxonbar, from=Q745738 Rodent genera Taxa named by Marcelo Weksler Taxa named by Alexandre Reis Percequillo