Specimens of both species were segregated into five categories: Juveniles, young, subadults, adults, and old adults. Juvenal and young pygmy mice are readily separable from the other three categories; subadults are less easily distinguished from adults. In order to obtain an accurate understanding of geographic variation in these mice, only adults should be used in making taxonomic comparisons.
Juveniles.—Nestling mice yet unweaned; sutures in cranium incompletely closed; bony parts of skull fragile; M3 and m3 not erupted or only partly erupted and not protruding above margins of alveoli.
At birth, juveniles are pink, without pelage except for the mystacial vibrissae and a few hairs about the eye. Blair (op. cit.:381) recorded changes with age in color of the skin of new-born and suckling pygmy mice. Data obtained by me from three litters born in captivity agree with his findings. Pygmy mice are weaned when 17 to 24 days old. At that time, the mice possess a fine, but not dense, dusky-gray fur.
Young.—Weaned mice; cranium fragile; sutures between frontals and parietals, interparietal and parietals, basioccipital and basisphenoid, basisphenoid and presphenoid, premaxillaries and maxillaries widely open; M3 and m3 erupted beyond margins of their alveoli (molars erupt from anterior to posterior; M3 and m3, therefore, are last to erupt); in some specimens, molars slightly worn; pelage still dusky and relatively fine and sparse.
Subadults.—Sutures between bones of skull less widely open than in young; epiphyses of long bones incompletely coalesced to shaft; relative to length of skull, braincase higher and rostrum shorter than in adults; all cusps worn, but dentine not occlusally confluent; primary first and second folds of third upper molars present; primary first fold and major fold of lower molars visible; pelage a subtle mixture of colors of young and adult, but resembling most that of adult; molts into postjuvenal pelage between 46 and 50 days.
Adults.—Sutures of skull, and those between epiphyses and shaft of long bones obliterated except that, in some mice, sutures of skull persist between frontoparietal, and interparietal; cusps of molars so worn that dentine occlusally confluent; small island of enamel in third upper and lower molars of some specimens; relative to length of skull, cranium lower, rostrum longer, and interorbital region narrower than in subadult; cranium appears to be more flattened dorsoventrally; between subadult and adult stages, principal growth occurs in basioccipital, basisphenoid, frontals, and parietals; nasals grow less.
Although all bones of the skull grow in the subadult and early adult stages (see [table 1]), the above-named bones grow faster than others and thus cause the general flattening of the skull, typical of adults (similar to that reported by Hoffmeister, 1951:7). The body continues to lengthen, accounting for the increase in total length of the adult (see [table 1]). Hind foot, tail and ear, reach their maximum lengths by subadult stage. Adult pelage has been acquired, and the color is brighter than in either subadults or old adults.
Old Adults.—Characterized principally by well-worn molars; only thin peripheral band of enamel along with slight evidence of any primary or secondary folds on any teeth remain; all bones of skull coalesced; epiphyses and shafts of long bones ankylosed; small bony protuberances on many skulls; pelage usually ragged, tips of the hairs being worn away; white flecking and spotting not common, but occurs in some adults.