The Pocket Gophers (Genus Thomomys) of Utah: University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Vol. 1 No. 1Durrant, Stephen David
Science
The Pocket Gophers (Genus Thomomys) of Utah: University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Vol. 1 No. 1
Durrant, Stephen David
Pocket gophers -- Utah
_Thomomys bottae albicaudatus_ Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc.
Washington, 48:156, October 31, 1935; Durrant, Bull. Univ.
Utah, 28 (No. 4):5, August 18, 1937.
_Thomomys perpallidus aureiventris_ Hall, Univ. California
Publ. Zooel., 37:3, April 10, 1931.
_Type._--Male, adult, skin and skull, No. 43971, Museum of Vertebrate
Zooelogy, University of California; Provo, 4,510 ft., Utah County, Utah;
October 17, 1929; collected by Annie M. Alexander; original number 506.
_Range._--From the area between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch
Mountains south along the western margin of the central mountains of
the state to the Sevier River, in Juab County, west into Tooele County
to the Onaqui and Sheeprock mountains.
_Diagnosis._--Size medium (see measurements); claws on front feet
medium. Color: Upper parts near (13''''_n_) Black, grading over sides
and flanks to Pinkish Cinnamon on underparts; chin, nose, top of head
and postauricular patches black; front feet, hind feet and distal third
to half of tail white. Skull: Angular and ridged; zygomatic arches
moderately wide spreading, widest posteriorly; paroccipital processes
weak; zygomatic processes of maxillae convex anteriorly; lacrimal
processes small and peglike; jugals convex dorsally on ventral surface;
nasals short, rounded distally and truncate proximally; parietal crests
bowed in, in two places; interpterygoid space broadly V-shaped.
_Comparisons._-For comparisons of _albicaudatus_ with _Thomomys bottae
aureiventris_ and _centralis_ see accounts of those forms.
Topotypes of _albicaudatus_ are dark colored and can be distinguished
from those of _Thomomys bottae birdseyei_, _tivius_, _stansburyi_ and
_contractus_ which are also dark forms, by larger size and larger, more
robust skulls (see accounts of those forms). It can be distinguished
from the remainder of the known subspecies of _Thomomys bottae_ in Utah
by darker color and by cranial details (see accounts of those forms).
_Remarks._--The range of _albicaudatus_ is larger than that of any
other race of _Thomomys bottae_ limited to Utah. Specimens are
available from thirty localities which represent widely varied habitats
and environments. This subspecies consists of many highly variable
local populations, and the marginal populations intergrade freely with
adjacent races. In many populations, it is really difficult to
recognize the relationships on account of the great variation, and one
is frequently tempted to name some of them as distinct. Careful study
of the large number of specimens has enabled me to recognize diagnostic
characters common to all of these variable populations. The animals
range from large and dark at the north to small and light at the south.
The Jordan River bisects Salt Lake County from north to south. Pocket
gophers were taken at nine places east of the river, and at three
places west of it.
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