Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 7, No. 15, pp. 619-624, 2 figs. in text June 10, 1955 The Pigmy Woodrat, Neotoma goldmani, Its Distribution and Systematic Position BY DENNIS G. RAINEY AND ROLLIN H. BAKER UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1955 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Vol. 7, No. 15, pp. 619-624 Published June 10, 1955 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND. JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1955 25-7820 The Pigmy Woodrat, Neotoma goldmani, Its Distribution and Systematic Position By Dennis G. Rainey and Rollin H. Baker The pigmy woodrat, _Neotoma goldmani_ Merriam, the smallest known member of the genus, inhabits rocky areas in the elevated desert regions of the northern part of the Mexican Plateau (Mesa del Norte). Goldman (N. Amer. Fauna, 31:82, October 10, 1910) had for study ten specimens from two localities in Coahuila. Since his report, Dalquest (Louisiana State Univ. Studies, Biol. Sci. Ser. No. 1:162, December 28, 1953) extended the known distribution of this species approximately 225 miles southward into San Luis Potosi, where he reported animals from five localities. Field workers from the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas recently have taken _goldmani_ in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, and now we can define, with greater accuracy, the geographic range of this species (see fig. 1 and list of specimens examined). Goldman (_loc. cit._), relying chiefly on external appearance, placed _goldmani_ in the _desertorum_ group, now known as the _lepida_ group (Goldman, Jour. Mamm., 13:67, February 9, 1932). Blossom (Occ. Papers Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan, 315:3, May 29, 1935) thought that _goldmani_ might be a subspecies of _lepida_ but that intergradation between the two had not been demonstrated. Our newly acquired material, instead of confirming the opinions of Goldman and Blossom, shows that _goldmani_ is more closely related to _Neotoma albigula_.