Mimomys

{{short description|Extinct genus of vole}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Pliocene

- Pleistocene, {{Geological range|5.3|.05}}

| image = Mimomys IVPP.jpg

| image_caption = Fossil jaws (IVPP V13990) of M. gansunicus, Paleozoological Museum of China

| taxon = Mimomys

| authority = Forsyth-Major, 1902{{cite web |title=Mimomys |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=41812 |website=Fossilworks}}

}}

Mimomys is an extinct genus of voles that lived in Eurasia and North America during the Plio-Pleistocene. It is believed that one of the many species belonging to this genus gave rise to the modern water voles (Arvicola).{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=J.E. |title=On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals |journal=The London Medical Repository Monthly Journal and Review |date=1821 |volume=15 |pages=296–310}} Several other prehistoric genera of vole are probably synonymous with Mimomys, including the North American Cosomys{{cite web |title=Mimomys (Cosomys) primus |url=https://www.si.edu/object/nmnhpaleobiology_3379017 |website=Smithsonian}} and Ophiomys.CHARLES A. REPENNING "Chapter 17," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2003(279), 469-512, (1 November 2003). https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0090(2003)279<0469:C>2.0.CO;2

Several species are known to have survived into the Late Pleistocene, including M. pyrenaicus of France{{cite journal |last1=Jeannet |first1=Marcel |last2=Mourre |first2=Vincent |title=Mimomys pyrenaicus nov. sp. nouvel arvicolidé (Mammalia, Rodentia) dans le Pléistocène supérieur des Pyrénées (Fréchet-Aure, Hautes-Pyrénées, France) |journal=Paleo |date=2013 |volume=24 |issue=24 |pages=139–147 |doi=10.4000/paleo.2570|doi-access=free }} and M. chandolensis of the Russian Far East, which may have survived as recently as 50,000 BP.{{cite journal |last1=Tiunov |first1=Mikhail |last2=Golenishchev |first2=F.N. |last3=Voyta |first3=Leonid |title=The First Finding of Mimomys in the Russian Far East |journal=Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |date=March 2016 |volume=61 |issue=1 |doi=10.4202/app.00082.2014|s2cid=54511108 |doi-access=free }}