Whitehead's Sundaic Spiny Rat

Whitehead's Sundaic spiny rat is a murid currently classified as Crunomys whiteheadi. Older literature and database records use Maxomys whiteheadi, and the species was first described in the genus Mus. Modern systematic work transferred Maxomys into an expanded Crunomys after nuclear and mitochondrial evidence showed the older arrangement did not reflect evolutionary relationships (NCBI Taxonomy; Journal of Mammalogy systematic revision).

Specialist sources place the species on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. The opened material provides firm taxonomic evidence but little dependable species-wide natural history, so measurements, habitat, diet and reproduction are omitted rather than inferred from other spiny rats (Journal of Mammalogy systematic revision; NCBI Taxonomy). It is Nationally Near Threatened (Thailand Red Data 2025).