Tokudaia

Tokudaia is a genus of murine rodent native to Japan.^[1] Known as Ryūkyū spiny rats or spinous country-rats, population groups exist on several non-contiguous islands.^[2] Despite differences in name and appearance, they are the closest living relatives of the Eurasian field mouse (Apodemus). Of the three species, both T. osimensis and T. tokunoshimensis have lost their Y chromosome and SRY gene; the sex chromosomes of T. muenninki, on the other hand, are abnormally large.^[3]

Tokudaia Temporal range: Late Pleistocene to Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Tribe:	Apodemini
Genus:	Tokudaia Kuroda, 1943
Type species
Rattus jerdoini osimensis[1]
Species
See text

Named species are:^[3]

• Muennink's spiny rat, Tokudaia muenninki
• Ryukyu spiny rat, Tokudaia osimensis
• Tokunoshima spiny rat, Tokudaia tokunoshimensis

At least Tokudaia osimensis may be a cryptic species complex.

See also

• Ellobius