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Shaw's Jird
Meriones shawi (Duvernoy, 1842)
Also calledMaghrebrennratte (deu) · Mérione de Shaw (fra) · Rata de Shaw (spa) · Shaw-Rennratte (deu) · Shawi-Rennmaus (deu) · Shawrennratte (deu) · Shawwoestijnmuis (nld) · pískomil Shawův (ces) · rannikkojirdi (fin) · suwak śródziemnomorski (pol) · Γέρβιλος του Shaw (ell) · エジプトスナネズミ (jpn)
First described in: Mem. Soc. Sci. Nancy vol.3 p.22
Shaw's jird (Meriones shawi) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Its natural habitats are arable land, pastureland, and rural gardens.
The Shaw's jird is a relatively large, gerbil-like rodent about the size of a rat. An adult male may grow to 14 inches (36 cm) long including the tail, which comprises about half this length. Males tend to be slightly larger and more heavily built (up to 6 ounces (170 g)) than females (5 ounces (140 g).
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
Discussion: Subgenus Pallasiomys. A distinctive species that ranges mostly north of M. libycus but is sympatric with it in several regions (Lay and Nadler, 1969; Zaime and Pascal, 1988). The distribution maps of Algerian (Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska, 1991) and Egyptian (Osborn and Helmy, 1980) ranges of M. shawi and M. libycus illustrate their geographic relationships – mostly parapatric, but sympatric near the coast. Meriones shawi and M. libycus are often confused in museum collections and published reports (see the reviews by Lay and Nadler, 1969, and Pavlinov et al., 1990). The taxon grandis has traditionally been included in M. shawi but Pavlinov et al. (1990) reviewed grandis as a species and Pavlinov (2000) recorded the morphological traits distinguishing M. grandis from M. shawi; he also documented broad overlap between the two species in E Morocco, N Algeria, and Tunisia (see account of M. grandis).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
Distribution: Mediterranean littoral from E Morocco through N Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt to N Sinai, never found more than about 150 mi (240 km) inland (Lay and Nadler, 1969, and references therein; Pavlinov, 2000).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
discussion
COMMENTS: Subgenus Pallasiomys. A distinctive species that ranges mostly north of M. libycus but is sympatric with it in several regions (Lay and Nadler, 1969; Zaime and Pascal, 1988). The distribution maps of Algerian M. shawi and M. libycus in Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska (1991) illustrate the geographic relationships of these species — mostly parapatric, but sympatric near the coast. M. shawi and M. libycus are often confused in museum collections and published reports (see the review by Lay and Nadler, 1969).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
distribution
DISTRIBUTION: Mediterranean littoral from Morocco to N Sinai, never found more than about 150 mi inland (Lay and Nadler, 1969, and references therein).
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Meriones shawi in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 5219720.