A team of scientists from Indonesia, Denmark, France and the United States has discovered a new species and genus of rodent on the Halmahera Island in the Moluccan province, Indonesia.
Halmaheramys bokimekot. Image credit: Jon Fjeldsaa.
The new rodent, scientifically named Halmaheramys bokimekot, is a terrestrial, spiny rat of medium body size – about 15 cm. It has brownish grey fur on its back, a grayish white belly and a short tail.
“This new rodent highlights the large amount of unknown biodiversity in this region and the importance of its conservation. It constitutes a valuable addition to our knowledge of the biodiversity and much remains to be learned about mammalian biodiversity across this region,” said Dr Pierre-Henri Fabre of the University of Copenhagen, who is a lead author of a paper describing the new rodent in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
“Zoologists must continue to explore this area in order to discover and describe new species in this highly diverse, but also threatened region,” Dr Fabre added.
The new genus, Halmaheramys, is named after its geographical provenance in the North Moluccas.
The species name refers to the locality, Boki Mekot, in the northern part of Weda Bay, where Halmaheramys bokimekot was collected.
“This mountainous area is facing environmental threats from mining and logging operations. By naming the new species after the type locality, we highlight the importance of this limestone-rich area for conserving Halmaheran endemic biodiversity.”
The suggested common name of the new species is the Spiny Boki Mekot Rat.
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Bibliographic information: Pierre-Henri Fabre et al. 2013. A new genus of rodent from Wallacea (Rodentia: Muridae: Murinae: Rattini), and its implication for biogeography and Indo-Pacific Rattini systematics. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 169, no. 2, pp. 408–447; doi: 10.1111/zoj.12061
