The Yukon deermouse or Yukon deer mouse (Peromyscus arcticus) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is endemic to Yukon Territory in Canada.
| Yukon deer mouse | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Subfamily: | Neotominae |
| Genus: | Peromyscus |
| Species: | P. arcticus
|
| Binomial name | |
| Peromyscus arcticus (Wagner, 1845)
| |
Taxonomy
editThe species was first identified as Peromyscus arcticus in 1845 by Johann Andreas Wagner. In 1998, following extensive sampling of deermouse specimens throughout northern British Columbia, central Yukon, and northern southeast Alaska, Melanie Wike identified a unique lineage that did not associate with the western deer mouse (P. sonoriensis) (then thought to be North American deermouse, or P. maniculatus) or northwestern deermouse (P. keeni), both of which also reach the northern limits of their range in the Yukon, and identified it with the previously-described P. arcticus. Genetic studies in 2007 and 2019 further affirmed P. arcticus as a distinct species, and was later classified as such by the American Society of Mammalogists.[1][2][3][4]
Distribution
editThe species ranges within Yukon from Sulphur Lake southeast to Kluane National Park and Reserve and Annie Lake.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Lucid, M.K.; Cook, J.A. (August 2007). "Cytochrome-b haplotypes suggest an undescribed Peromyscus species from the Yukon". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 85 (8): 916–919. doi:10.1139/z07-076. ISSN 0008-4301.
- ^ Wike, Melanie Joy (1998). Mitochondrial-DNA variation among populations of Peromyscus from Yukon, Canada and southeastern Alaska (Thesis). Texas A&M University.
- ^ Greenbaum, Ira F.; Honeycutt, Rodney L.; Chirhart, Scott E. (October 2019). "Taxonomy and phylogenetics of the Peromyscus maniculatus species group". Special Publications, Museum of Texas Tech University. 71: 559–575.
- ^ "Peromyscus maniculatus (J. A. Wagner, 1845)". Explore the Database. Retrieved 2023-06-02.