Plains Pocket Mouse

Open encyclopedia reference

The plains pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens) is a heteromyid rodent of North America. It ranges from southwestern Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota to northern Texas east of the Rockies, and from northern Utah and Colorado to northern Chihuahua west of the Rockies. It has soft silky fur and grows to be 5 inches (13 cm) long, although nearly half of that is the tail. They often live directly underneath Spanish bayonet or prickly pear plants. They are accustomed to sandy soil and eat mostly seeds, large and small grasses and small leaves of plants. Some food found in their cheek pouches are: seeds of needle grass (Stipa), bind weed, sandbur grass, a small bean (probably Astragalus), and sedge (Cyperus). Even those caught in grain fields usually have their pouches filled with weed seeds. Seeds of two species of pigeon grass, a few other grasses, and wild buckwheat have been found in their burrows. Their breeding season is mainly July to August and the females tend to have 4 embryos at a time. Other information about this animal is scarce.

Wikipedia contributors, Plains pocket mouse; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:17:02.864247+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Perognathus flavescens Merriam, 1889

Name authority

Merriam, 1889

Common name

Plains Pocket Mouse

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Heteromyidae

Genus

Perognathus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
12. suborderCastorimorpha A. E. Wood, 1955
13. familyHeteromyidae Gray, 1868
14. subfamilyPerognathinae Coues, 1875
15. genusPerognathus Wied-Neuwied, 1839
16. speciesPerognathus flavescens Merriam, 1889

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Perognathus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 52 records assigned to Heteromyidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=180261 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4F794. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.