Oenomys

Oenomys is a genus of African rodents known as rufous-nosed rats.^[1] They occur from south-east Guinea and Ghana through the Congo forest to Uganda and Kenya.^[2] The nose is reddish, or at least the cheeks, which suggested both the English and scientific names (oeno- means "wine" and -mys denotes a mouselike animal in Greek).^[3][4]

Oenomys Temporal range: Late Pliocene to Recent
Oenomys hypoxanthus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Tribe:	Arvicanthini
Genus:	Oenomys Thomas, 1904
Type species
Mus hypoxanthus
Species
See text

The two recognised, living species occupy separate geographical ranges:

• Oenomys hypoxanthus (Pucheran, 1855), common rufous-noded rat
  • Oenomys hypoxanthus albiventris (Eisentraut, 1968), a montane subspecies^[5]
• Oenomys ornatus (Thomas, 1911), Ghana rufous-nosed rat
• †Oenomys tiercelini^[6]