Key Largo woodrat
| Key Largo woodrat | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Genus: | Neotoma |
| Species: | N. floridana |
| Subspecies: | N. f. smalli |
| Trinomial name | |
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Neotoma floridana smalli Sherman, 1955 |
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The Key Largo woodrat (Neotoma floridana smalli), a subspecies of the Florida woodrat (Neotoma floridana), is a medium-sized rat found in the northern area of Key Largo, Florida, in the United States. It is currently on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species. The rat grows to 260 grams and feeds on fruit, leaves and buds. It has a gray-brown back and white belly, chest, and throat, and a hairy tail. Only 6500 animals were thought to remain in North Key Largo in the late 1980s..
Although a 1923 article described woodrat nests on Key Largo, the form was not scientifically described until 1955, when H.B. Sherman described it as Neotoma floridana smalli, a subspecies of the widespread Florida woodrat (Neotoma floridana). In 1987, Lazell suggested that it is distinct enough to be considered a separate species, but this proposal has not been accepted. The of Key Largo woodrats is distinct by at least 0.6% from that of the most similar subspecies, Neotoma floridana floridana from further north in Florida, but members of that subspecies differ about as much from each other as from the Key Largo woodrat.
The Key Largo woodrat is similar to Neotoma floridana floridana and cannot be distinguished from it in size or external anatomy. It differs in the shape of the sphenopalatine vacuities (openings in the roof of the mesopterygoid fossa, the gap behind the palate), which are narrower and shorter than in N. f. floridana. On average, males are a bit larger than females. In the holotype, an adult male, total length is 368 mm (14.5 in), tail length 167 mm (6.6 in), hindfoot length 37 mm (1.5 in), ear length 26 mm (1.0 in), dimensions of the testis 14 mm × 8.5 mm (0.55 in × 0.33 in), and mass is 207 g (7.3 oz).
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