Neodon fuscus (Büchner, 1889)

Open encyclopedia reference

The plateau vole (Neodon fuscus), also known as the smokey vole, Smoky Mountain vole, or the Qinghai vole, is a species of rodent found on the grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau in the Qinghai province of China. It is a grayish brown to yellow-coloured vole that eats plants and lives in large colonies. It belongs to the family Cricetidae, which includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. Plateau voles measure up to 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) long, plus a 2-to-4 cm (0.8-to-1.6 in) tail. They are closely related to several other voles found in China, including Blyth's vole. Because they inhabit regions at high elevations—from 3,700 to 4,800 metres (12,100 to 15,700 feet)—plateau voles have several adaptations that help them deal with lower concentrations of oxygen in the environment, which can induce hypoxia. These include the production of additional hemoglobin to transport oxygen in the bloodstream and switching from metabolizing fatty acids over to glucose.

Wikipedia contributors, Plateau vole; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:45:52.896198+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Neodon fuscus (Büchner, 1889)

Name authority

(Büchner, 1889)

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Cricetidae

Genus

Neodon

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. suborderMyomorpha Brandt, 1855
13. superfamilyMuroidea Illiger, 1811
14. familyCricetidae Fischer, 1817
15. subfamilyArvicolinae Gray, 1821
16. genusNeodon Hodgson, 1849
17. speciesNeodon fuscus (Büchner, 1889)

Close classified relatives

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

Browse 593 records assigned to Cricetidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

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=972575 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.

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:747VC. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.