A New Species of Wood Rat from Northeastern Mexico

Jose Ticul Alvarez SolorzanoProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4

Word count: 8.6K words
Chapters: 1

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A New Species of Wood Rat (Neotoma) from Northeastern Mexico by Ticul AlvarezAuthor: Alvarez, Ticul, 1935-2001,Language: English, Class: QL: Science: Zoology, Release Date: Dec 30, 2011

Editor's review

This short taxonomic paper describes a new species of wood rat (Neotoma) from northeastern Mexico and is a typical primary source in animal taxonomy. Its core value lies in providing the morphological description of the new species, type specimen information, and locality records, making it first-hand material for understanding wood rat diversity in the region. The paper is brief and highly concentrated in information, focusing on diagnostic characters and comparative discussion; it serves as a useful reference sample for taxonomic writing and species-description conventions. For readers studying rodent taxonomy and the mammalian fauna of Mexico, such literature has reference value; for general readers, the threshold is relatively high. When reading, focus on its descriptive framework and comparative method rather than expecting narrative content.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars engaged in rodent taxonomy and systematics
Faculty, students, and herbarium or museum staff studying the mammalian fauna of Mexico
Biology students learning the conventions of species-description writing
Museums and reference collections needing taxonomic literature on the genus Neotoma

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping to learn about rodent ecology, behavior, or control
General readers without a taxonomic background or familiarity with morphological terminology
Readers looking for children's nature education or pet-care content

Reading tips

Read the diagnostic characters and comparative discussion first to grasp the key distinctions between the new species and its close relatives.
Read alongside existing descriptions of Neotoma species to understand the author's basis for establishing the new species.
Note the type locality and morphometric data, which can serve as reference material for taxonomic identification.
Pay attention to the paper's structure, which makes it a useful model for learning species-description conventions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this paper help me identify wood rats around me?

Only to a limited extent. The paper describes a new species from northeastern Mexico and focuses on morphological diagnostic characters and the type specimen rather than a broad identification key. For field identification, you would need a complete genus-level key and distribution data for the region, and you should note the geographic limits—it cannot be applied directly to other areas.

Does the paper's short length mean its content is unimportant?

Not at all. New-species descriptions in taxonomy are by nature concise: short in length but dense in information, including the type specimen, morphometric measurements, and comparative discussion. Their scholarly value lies in providing primary records of species diversity and a foundation for later systematic research; importance cannot be judged by length.

What is the value of this paper for non-specialist readers?

Non-specialist readers can use it to see how taxonomists describe a new species: from specimen collection and morphometric measurement to comparison with close relatives, forming a rigorous chain of evidence. This helps readers understand how knowledge of biodiversity is produced, but basic biological vocabulary is needed, and popular-science materials can be used alongside it.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Jose Ticul Alvarez Solorzano Author · Mexican · 1935–2001

Ticul Alvarez (1935–2001), a Mexican mammalogist, was born in Mexico City. He taught for many years at the School of Biological Sciences of the National Polytechnic Institute, where he founded its mammal specimen collection and pioneered Mexican zooarchaeology. His research focused on rodents and mammals of northeastern Mexico and Tamaulipas. His representative works include A New Species of Wood Rat from Northeastern Mexico, The Recent Mammals of Tamaulipas, México, and papers on the taxonomic status of some mice of the Peromyscus boylii group in eastern Mexico and on a new subspecies of ground squirrel from Tamaulipas. He described 22 new species and subspecies and was elected an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mammalogists in 1997. The library holds 4 of his works; classification information is unavailable, and public materials are limited, so this profile is based on the facts available.