76 
MURIDAE RECORDED FROM VICTORIA 
Fos. Mamm., i. p. 227, 1885; Ogilby, Aust. Mus. Cat., No. 16, Aust. 
Mamm., p. 120, 1892; Wood Jones, Mamm. Sth. Aust., iii, p. 323, 
1925; Finlayson, Trans, and Proc. Roy. Soc. Sth. Aust., lvii, p. 125, 
1933; Brazenor, Mem. Nat. Mus. Melb., viii, p. 159, 1934. 
The Broacl-toothed Rat is a stoutly-built, dusky-brown 
animal with long fluffy fur and a short tail. In external 
appearance it is almost indistinguishable from Rattus 
lutreola , but it is slightly larger and has longer and softer 
fur. 
General colour yellowish-brown. Dorsal fur slate for three-fourths of its 
length, tipped with yellow. Long hairs few, shining black. Sides of body 
a little lighter, grading into buffy-grey of ventral surface without demarcation. 
Ventral fur basally leaden-grey, tipped with ashy-grey, and the whole washed 
with huff. Head as body, scarcely lighter on cheeks. Mysticial vibrissae 
not particularly numerous or long (40 mm.) ; short anterior hairs mixed 
black and white, longer posterior hairs black with white tips. Ear short, 
broad, rounded in outline; clothed with dark brown adpressed hair. Tail 
slight, short, almost uniform in colour; sparsely clothed with stiff brown 
hair which is a little lighter on the ventral surface. Manus and pes dusky 
both above and below ; upper surface clothed with adpressed, greyish hair. 
Nails white. 
Skull. — Large, heavy, and in fully adult specimens boldly sculptured. 
Anterior edge of zygomatic plate deeply concave with a projecting point 
above. Braincase not tapering forward as in Rattus, but suddenly constricted 
immediately in front of the fronto-parietal suture. 
Teeth . — Molars large and very broad; not graduated in size, the third 
being fully as long as the first. In younger specimens the laminae are very 
tilted and boldly tuberculated, but in older examples with worn molars 
these characters are modified, though the sharp-edged, transversely-folded 
crown pattern is quite different from the rather-rounded crowns of Rattus. 
The incisors are heavy, but considerable variation occurs in breadth; they 
are more opisthodont than those of any other Victorian rat. 
Dimensions oj Skin (from flesh). — Head and body, 172 mm.; tail, 123 
mm.; hind foot, 34 mm.; ear, 21 mm. 
Dimensions oj Skull . — Greatest length, 40 mm.; basal length, 35 mm.; 
greatest breadth, 22-5 mm.; interorbital, 4 mm.; palate length, 22 mm.; 
breadth inside M 2 , 2 mm.; breadth outside M 2 , 9 5 mm.; palatal foramina, 
8 mm.; diastema, 10 3 mm.; upper molars, 10 mm. 
Type Locality. — Tasmania. 
That the Broad-toothed Rat is still a living Victorian mam- 
mal was discovered only recently. No details of its ecology 
are known. In its only known habitat it lives amongst large 
numbers of Rattus assimilis, and leaves no conspicuous signs, 
such as “runs,” by which its presence can be recognized. Its 
recent capture, in each case, lias been incidental to the trap- 
ping of assimilis. 
The Broad-toothed Rat is nowhere in any considerable num- 
bers, though it inhabits a large area of the Otway Forest. 
