Hispid Cotton Rat

Taxobox | name = Hispid Cotton Rat
status = G5
status_system = TNC

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regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Cricetidae
genus = "Sigmodon"
subgenus = "Sigmodon"
species_group = "S. hispidus"
species = "S. hispidus"
binomial = "Sigmodon hispidus"
binomial_authority = Say and Ord, 1825

The Hispid Cotton Rat, "Sigmodon hispidus", is a rodent species long thought to occur in parts of South America, Central America, and southern North America. However, recent taxonomic revisions, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, have split this widely distributed species into three separate species. Carroll et al. (2004) indicate that the southern edge of the "S. hispidus" distribution is likely near the Rio Grande River where it meets the northern distribution of "S. toltecus" (formerly "S. h. toltecus"). The range of "S. toltecus" extends from northern Mexico south into Chiapas where it occurs in sympatry with "S. hirsutus" (formerly "S. h. hirsutus").They have been used as laboratory animals. [Mittal SK, Middleton DM, Tikoo SK, Prevec L, Graham FL, Babiuk LA. Pathology and immunogenicity in the cotton rat ("Sigmodon hispidus") model after infection with a bovine adenovirus type 3 recombinant virus expressing the firefly luciferase gene. J Gen Virol. 1996 Jan;77:1-9.PMID: 8558115]

Notes

* [http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura/ Infonatura]
*Carroll, D. S., L. L. Peppers, and R. D. Bradley. 2004. Molecular systematics and phylogeography of the Sigmodon hispidus species group. Pp. 85-98, in Contribuciones Mastozoologicas en Homenaje a Bernardo Villa (Sanchez-Cordero V. y R. A. Medellin Eds.) Instituto de Biologia e Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM, Mexico.
*Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894-1531 "in" Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.