Merriam's pocket mouse | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Heteromyidae |
Genus: | Perognathus |
Species: | P. merriami
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Binomial name | |
Perognathus merriami J. A. Allen, 1892
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Merriam's pocket mouse (Perognathus merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae.[2] It is found in northeast Mexico and New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the United States. Its habitat is shortgrass prairie, desert areas with scrub and arid shrubland.[1] The species is named to honor Clinton Hart Merriam, a biologist who first described several other members of the genus Perognathus, and first elucidated the principle of a "life zone" as a means of characterizing ecological areas with similar plant and animal communities.