Paulamys

Paulamys is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae whose only known member is Paulamys naso, called Paula's long-nosed rat or the Flores long-nosed rat, a species found only on Flores Island in Indonesia. It was first described from subfossil fragments collected in the 1950s by Theodor Verhoeven and named Floresomys naso by Guy Musser in 1981; because Floresomys was already in use, Musser changed the genus name to Paulamys, after Verhoeven's life partner Paula Hamerlinck. A living animal was reported from the montane forest of western Flores in 1989, and it is recorded as common between 1,000 and 2,000 metres on the volcano Gunung Ranakah, although habitat destruction is believed to threaten it. It is a relatively small rat of about 100 to 200 grams, thought to eat fungus and invertebrates and to burrow. The IUCN Red List assesses it as Endangered.