A new rodent from Quaternary deposits of the Canary Islands and its relationships with Neogène and recent murids of Europe and Africa.

Rainer Hutterer, Nieves Lopez-Martinez and Jacques Michaux

Cite this article: Hutterer R., Lopez-Martinez N., Michaux J., 1988. A new rodent from Quaternary deposits of the Canary Islands and its relationships with Neogène and recent murids of Europe and Africa. Palaeovertebrata 18 (4): 241-262.

Abstract

A peculiar new rodent, Malpaisomys insularis nov. gen., nov. sp., is described from subfossil deposits of the eastern Canary Islands. The species shows some highly specialized skull features although its molars exhibit a mixture of primitive and derived characters among which a partial stephanodonty is most notable. A comparison of the new rodent with several Miocene to Holocene Muridae shows that Malpaisomys possibly shares a common ancestor with Acomys and Uranomys.