Abstract
Abstract A highly distinctive rodent from the highlands of Ethiopia is currently being confused with a very different mouse from the Zaire Basin. The Ethiopian water mouse, Nilopegamys Osgood 1928, can be distinguished from Colomys and all other African murids by external, cranial, post-cranial and dental characters. Adaptations of Nilopegamys for swimming are more extreme than those of any other African murid; as noted by Osgood, it is the only one with specializations reminiscent of Neotropical ichthyomyines or Australasian hydromyines. However, the African mice Colomys, Malacomys, and Deomys also exhibit varying degrees of semi-aquatic specializations. These genera constitute a previously unrecognized guild of ‘waders’. Without swimming and while perched on elongate hind feet, all three consume insects and other small animals in shallow forest streams and pools. Both waders and swimmers show neurological adaptations to life in water, but Nilopegamys redefines certain extremes of cerebral development among African murids. Resurrected from synonymy with Colomys, this genus further accentuates the distinctiveness and imperilled status of the Ethiopian highland fauna.
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