The Pocket Gophers (Genus Thomomys) of Utah / University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Vol. 1 No. 1

by Stephen David Durrant

That part of the Wasatch Mountains south of Spanish Fork Canyon is inhabited by pocket gophers that are intergrades between moorei and wasatchensis, but the cranial details show them to be referable to moorei. The range here ascribed to moorei consists of the Wasatch Plateau to the east of Sanpete Valley, the San Pitch Mountains and the southern part of the Wasatch Mountains. The type locality of moorei is situated in the southern end of a high valley that separates the Wasatch Plateau from the San Pitch and Wasatch mountains. Topotypical animals are larger and have more ridged, angular skulls than those from the mountains.

Specimens examined.—Total, 48, distributed as follows: Utah County: Near Payson Lake, 1 (R. H.); Mt. Nebo, 25 mi. SE Payson, 10,000 ft., 20; Colton, 8 (B. Y. U.). Sanpete County: 1 mi. S Fairview, 6,000 ft., 12 (U. S. N. M.). Juab County: Mouth of Reddicks Canyon, Wales Mountain (= San Pitch Mountains), 7,500 ft., 5. Emery County: Lake Creek, 11 mi. E Mt. Pleasant, 2 (C. M.).

Additional records.—Sanpete County: Ephraim, 5 (see Goldman, 1938:336).

Thomomys talpoides fossor Allen

Thomomys fossor Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:51, April 28, 1893; Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, 39:111, November 15, 1915; Barnes, Bull. Univ. Utah, 12 (No. 15):85, April, 1922; Bull. Univ. Utah, 17 (No. 12):102, June, 1927; Hall, Univ. California Publ. Zoöl., 37:4, April 10, 1931.

Thomomys talpoides fossor Goldman, Journ. Mamm., 20:234, May 14, 1939.

Type.—Male, adult, skin and skull, No. 5240/4120, American Museum of Natural History; Florida, 7,200 ft., La Plata County, Colorado; June 25, 1892; collected by Charles P. Rowley (after Allen, type not seen).

Range.—In the mountains of San Juan and Grand counties, east of the Colorado and Green rivers.

Diagnosis.—Size medium (see measurements). Color: Upper parts Dresden Brown, grading over sides to Pale Buff on underparts; chin white; ears small, pointed, with deeply pigmented pinnae; postauricular patches grayish black; nose dusky. Skull: Long and narrow; nasals long, rounded proximally and usually simple distally; rostrum long; interparietal triangular; tympanic bullae large, and well inflated ventrally; basioccipital narrow; palate narrow; palatal pits shallow; dentition light.