Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Platacanthomyidae > Platacanthomys > Platacanthomys lasiurus

Platacanthomys lasiurus (Malabar spiny dormouse)

Wikipedia Abstract

The Malabar spiny dormouse (Platacanthomys lasiurus) is a species of muroid rodent endemic to the Western Ghats of India. It is the only extant species in the genus Platacanthomys and although resembling a dormouse, it is not closely related. About the size of a brown rat, this arboreal species lives in tree holes in dense forest habitats in a small family group. They are distinguishable from other species in the area by their bushy tuft tip to the tail and the spiny fur on the back.
View Wikipedia Record: Platacanthomys lasiurus

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Platacanthomys lasiurus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
6
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
51
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 13.72
EDGE Score: 4.08
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  75 grams
Diet [2]  Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [2]  40 %
Diet - Plants [2]  30 %
Diet - Seeds [2]  30 %
Forages - Arboreal [2]  100 %
Maximum Longevity [3]  2 years
Nocturnal [4]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [3]  8 inches (21 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Eravikulam National Park II 39436 Kerala, India
Kudremukh National Park II 202772 Karnataka, India  
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve 1364022 India  
Western Ghats World Heritage Site 1965266 Kerala, India  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Western Ghats and Sri Lanka India, Sri Lanka No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 5Status, distribution, food and feeding of Malabar Spiny Dormouse (Platacanthomys lasiurus Blyth) in the Western Ghats of Kerala, E. A. Jayson, KFRI Research Report No. 293 (2006)
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0