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Dipodomys panamintinus

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Panamint Kangaroo Rat
(Dipodomys panamintinus)
Range
Taxonomic classification
Order:Rodentia
Suborder:Supramyomorpha
Infraorder:Castorimorphi
Family:Heteromyidae
Subfamily:Dipodomyinae
Genus:Dipodomys
Binomial details
Dipodomys panamintinus (Merriam, 1894)

Description

From Intress & Best (1990): "The Panamint kangaroo rat is medium-sized for the genus (Best, in press). Morphologically, it is adapted for ricochetal locomotion (Eisenberg, 1963). The hind foot has five toes. The tail is heavily crested and amounts to about 140% of the length of the head and body, or about 58% of the total length (Hall, 1946), and has a ventral stripe that may extend to the end of the vertebrae (Ingles, 1965). The upper parts are pale buffy clay-color, tinged with pale ochraceous. Thigh patches are large, colored similar to the back. Facial crescents and end of nose are broadly blackish, but barely or not continuous over sides of nose; inner sides of legs are dusky. Dorsal and ventral tail stripes are pale dusky, the ventral stripe failing or indistinctly continuous on distal third, permitting the lateral white stripes to meet below on distal third. Eyelids and anterior part (>50%) of reflexed upper border of ear blackish; posterior part of ear whitish (Merriam, 1894)."

From Jameson & Peeters (2004): "A rather large kangaroo rat whose color varies from ashy gray to dark brown or cinnamon brown."

Dipodomys panamintinus observed in Mono County, California, by markc666.
Dipodomys panamintinus observed in Mono County, California, by markc666.

External measurements

Length measurements are in millimeters (mm) and weight measurements are in grams (g), unless stated otherwise. If available, the sample size (n=) is provided. If a range is not provided and n= is not given, then the listed measurement represents an average.

Part of range Reference Total length Tail length Hindfoot length Ear length Mass
California Jameson & Peeters (2004) 285–334 156–202 42–48 64–81
rangewide Intress & Best (1990) and Hafner (1977, mass value) males: 292.4 (n=467); females: 287.8 (n=385) males: 172.3 (n=467); females: 169.6 (n=385) males: 44.5 (n=467); females: 43.8 (n=385) males: 14.0 (n=467); females: 13.9 (n=385) 72.4


Skull

From Jameson & Peeters (2004): "Its lower incisors have a rounded anterior surface."

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Similar species

From Intress & Best (1990): "Several cogeners occur sympatrically or near the range of D. panamintinus. D. stephensi has hind feet that usually are less than 42.5 mm in length, a tail that is 145-154% of the length of head and body, a white tail stripe about one-half as wide as the dorsal stripe, and a dark ventral tail stripe that extends to the end of the caudal vertebrae (Ingles, 1965). D. agilis has much larger ears, darker coloration (Grinnell, 1922), a tail that is about 155% of the length of the head and body, and a white tail stripe almost as wide as the dorsal tail stripe at mid-tail. D. heermanni has a tail that is about 150% of the length of the head and body; the tail is light gray or whitish, tipped with little or no crest. D. merriami is smaller and has four toes on its hind feet. D. microps has flattened incisors that usually are wider than 1 mm. D. ordii is smaller, has a tail that is 120-130% of the length of head and body, has a white tail stripe that is as wide as or wider than the ventral dark tail stripe, and the ventral tail stripe never reaches the end of the vertebrae (Ingles, 1965)."

From Hayssen (1991): "D. microps shares it range with two other five-toed kangaroo rats, D. panamintinus and D. ordii. D. microps has a hind foot <44 mm in length in the part of its range shared with D. panamintinus (length of hind foot is 42-48 mm for D. panamintinus) and has flatter, more chisel-shaped incisors than either D. panamintinus or D. ordii (Hall, 1981)."

From Jameson & Peeters (2004): "It is distinguished from the Desert Kangaroo Rat (D. deserti), which is very pale and with which it may occur, by its darker color and by the five toes on its hind foot (the Desert Kangaroo Rat has four)."

References

Eisenberg JF, Isaac DE. 1963. The reproduction of heteromyid rodents in captivity. Journal of Mammalogy 44: 61-67.

Grinnell J. 1922. A geographical study of the kangaroo rats of California. University of California Publications in Zoology, 24: 1-124.

Hall ER. 1946. Mammals of Nevada. Berkeley (CA, USA): University of California Press.

Hall ER. 1981. The mammals of North America. 2 vols. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Hayssen V. 1991. Dipodomys microps. Mammalian Species (389):pp.1-9.

Ingles LG. 1965. Mammals of the Pacific states. Stanford (CA, USA): Stanford University Press.

Intress C, Best TL. 1990. Dipodomys panamintinus. Mammalian Species (354): 1-7.

Jameson, E.W. and Peeters, H.J., 2004. Mammals of California (No. 66). Univ of California Press.

Merriam CH. 1894. Preliminary descriptions of eleven new kangaroo rats of the genera Dipodomys and Perodipus. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 9: 109-116.

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