Angolan brush-furred rat

The Angolan brush-furred rat (Lophuromys angolensis) is a species of brush-furred mouse found in Angola and the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has a dark coat of stiff, coarse fur and a stubby body with short legs, though it is slightly more slender and longer than the related Lophuromys sikapusi. Its tail averages about 75 millimetres, some 6 millimetres longer than that of L. sikapusi, and males and females differ very little in size. It weighs on average about 80 percent as much as L. sikapusi, which runs from 45 to 90 grams. It can be told apart from that species by its more slender and shorter rostrum, somewhat narrower braincase and more slender, somewhat shorter dental arches. It was treated as part of Lophuromys sikapusi until 2000, when Walter Verheyen and colleagues published a study describing it as a distinct species.