| Bibimys Temporal range:Pleistocene–Recent | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Subfamily: | Sigmodontinae |
| Tribe: | Akodontini |
| Genus: | Bibimys Massoia, 1979 |
| Type species | |
| Bibimys torresi | |
| Species | |
Bibimys is agenus ofnew world rats.[1] Commonly known as thecrimson-nosed rats, there are three species:
An extinct speciesBibimys massoiai is known fromQuaternary remains in northeastern Brazil.[2]
Presently, species ofBibimys are found in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
As with most of the species in the South American Sigmodontinae,Bibimys has been arranged as a genus based mainly on morphological differences from the other living genera.Bibimys belongs to the tribe Scapteromyini, first informally described by P. Hershkovitz in 1966 and formally introduced later by E. Massoia in 1979. The scapteromyines are a small sigmodontine tribe, consisting of the three genera:Bibimys,Kunsia andScapteromys. Many of the species have been described from badly preserved specimens.
One of the greatest challenges lying with sigmodontine systematics is that there is much confusion and disagreement amongst authors regarding the relationship between their tribes. There are some disagreements regarding the validity of the scapteromyines and ofBibimys as a genus. In a broad phylogenetic study, Smith and Patton found that the scapteromyine generaKunsia andScapteromys formed a clade closely related to the Akodontini.[3] In another study, D´Elia, Pardiñas and Myers have provisionally retained three species ofBibimys. Given the inadequacies of sample size and geographic representation, however, they acknowledged that morphological, karyotypic, and genetic evidence for their separation is unpersuasive.[citation needed]
