King African mole-rat

King African mole-rat
Above: chunky rodent mandible and skull, seen from the side; below: same skull, seen from above and below.
Holotype skull and mandible of Tachyoryctes rex.[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Spalacidae
Genus: Tachyoryctes
Species:
T. rex
Binomial name
Tachyoryctes rex
Heller, 1910[2]

The King African mole-rat,[3] King mole-rat,[4] or Alpine mole-rat,[5] (Tachyoryctes rex) is a burrowing rodent in the genus Tachyoryctes of family Spalacidae.[6] It only occurs high on Mount Kenya, where it is common. Originally described as a separate species related to Aberdare Mountains African mole-rat, (T. audax) in 1910, some classify it as the same species as the East African mole-rat, (T. splendens).

It is a very large, brownish species, with head and body length ranging from 222 to 268 mm (8.7 to 10.6 in). The young are dark with irregular white patches on their underparts. The animal builds large burrows and perhaps associated mounds and eats plant roots.

  1. ^ Hollister, 1919, plate 15
  2. ^ Heller, 1910, p. 4
  3. ^ Musser and Carleton, 2005, p. 924
  4. ^ Duff and Lawson, 2004
  5. ^ Loring in Roosevelt, 1910, p. 547
  6. ^ Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.