Grammomys macmillani ( Wroughton, 1907 )

Denys, Christiane, Missoup, Alain Didier, Nicolas, Violaine, Sylla, Morlaye, Douno, Mory, Kadjo, Blaise, Lalis, Aude & Monadjem, Ara, 2025, Annotated checklist of rodents from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa), Zoosystema 47 (27), pp. 617-689 : 641

Grammomys macmillani ( Wroughton, 1907)

Thamnomys macmillani Wroughton, 1907: 504 .

Thamnomys buntingi Thomas, 1911: 381 .

Grammomys buntingi – Thomas 1915: 150.

REMARKS

The Nimba Grammomys are very similar to the type specimen of G. buntingi from Bassa in displaying a brown-grey dorsal pelage with more yellow-brown hairs above the rump, a white-grey belly and a long tail ending with a tuft of brown-red hairs. The skull displays a short nasal and a relative globular braincase with a well marked interorbital constriction. The CIO is underlined by fronto-parietal crests. On the ventral side, the incisive foramina stop at the level of the first root of the upper M1. The dental rows are small and quite parallel, the tympanic bullae are small. In size, the skull of G. macmillani buntingi of Nimba fits well within the variability of other Guinean and Sierra Leone specimens and are close to the holotype measurements. On the upper molars, T7 is absent from the upper M1, which corresponds to the Grammomys genus definition ( Thomas 1915). Specimen MNHN-ZM-2014-1016 (stage 2) and MNHN-ZM-2014-2017 and 2018 (stages 5) are characterized by small molar rows and display the same cusp arrangement as the holotype. The upper M3 is small, cusps are relatively round and bunodont with some light stephanodont crests relating longitudinally cups between rows. These stephanodont crests are peculiarly visible on the t3 of the upper M1/ and between t6 and t9. On the lower molars, cusps alternate with slight crests. There is no t7 on the upper M12 but a crest relating t4 to t8. There is a tma on the lower m1 and many variable labial cingular cusplets surrounding cv5