Little Pocket Mouse
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| Little Pocket Mouse | ||||||||||||||
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| Perognathus longimembris (Coues, 1875) |
The Little Pocket Mouse (Perognathus longimembris) is a species of rodent in the Heteromyidae family. It is found in Mexico and the United States. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.
Five mice of this species traveled into space and orbited the Earth and Moon in an experiment on board the Apollo 17 command module in December 1972. Four of the mice survived reentry. Six other Little Pocket Mice were sent into orbit with Skylab 3 in July 1973, though these animals died after only 30 hours due to a power failure.
[edit] References
- Patten, M., Myers, S., McGaugh, C., Easton, J. & Erickson, R. 2000. Perognathus longimembris. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 30 July 2007.
- Haymaker, W., Look, B., Benton, E. & Simmonds, R. Biomedical Results of Apollo. Chapter 4: The Apollo 17 Pocket Mouse Experiment. NASA SP-368, 1975. [1]
- Borkowski, G., Wilfinger, W. & Lane P. "Laboratory Animals in Space," Animal Welfare Information Center Newsletter, Vol. 6 No. 2-4, Winter 1995/1996. [2]
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