Crete Spiny Mouse – Acomys minous

Acomys minousBate, 1905

Accepted name, Mammal Species of the World 2005

"Subgenus Acomys. Treated as a species by Dieterlen (1978a), Corbet and Hill (1991), Cheylan (1991), and Denys et al. (1994). Chromosomal banding pattern documented by Kunze et al. (1999b:228), who noted the close similarity between karyotypes of Egyptian A. cahirinus and A. minous, and speculated that ""Acomys may have reached Crete by ship with humans,"" an assumption concordant ""with the lack of fossil Acomys records in Crete"" (see Dieterlen, 1978, and discussion and references in Barome et al. [2001a]). This hypothesis was challenged by Barome et al. (2001a) based on mtDNA cytochrome b sequences. Their sample of A. minous was composed of two lineages, one (group A) clustered with Egyptian A. cahirinus and A. nesiotes from Cyprus, the other (group B) formed a clade with the Turkish A. cilicicus. Cytochrome b sequences were closely similar among the four species, the maximum nucleoti... [truncated]"

• Wilson, D and Reeder, D. (eds.) 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. -- 2142 pp. Johns Hopkins University Press.