Psammomys

{{Short description|Genus of rodents}}

{{automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Late Pleistocene – Recent

| image = Psammomys obesus 01.jpg

| image_caption = Fat sand rat (Psammomys obesus)

| taxon = Psammomys

| authority = Cretzschmar, 1828

| type_species = Psammomys obesus

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• Psammomys obesus
• Psammomys vexillaris

}}

Psammomys is a genus of rodents in the family Muridae.{{MSW3 Muroidea | id = 13001162 | page = | heading = Genus Psammomys}}

The etymology of the genus name derives from the two Ancient Greek words {{wikt-lang|grc|ψάμμος}} ({{grc-transl|ψάμμος}}), meaning "sand", and {{wikt-lang|grc|μῦς}} ({{grc-transl|μῦς}}), meaning "mouse, rat".{{Cite book |title=Abrégé du dictionnaire grec français |last=Bailly |first=Anatole |date=1981-01-01 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=2010035283 |location=Paris |oclc=461974285 }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.tabularium.be/bailly/ |title=Greek-french dictionary online |last=Bailly |first=Anatole |date= |website=www.tabularium.be |publisher= |access-date=November 8, 2017}}

The complete nuclear DNA genome of one Psamomys species, P. obesus, has been sequenced in 2017.{{Cite journal|last1=Hargreaves|first1=Adam D.|last2=Zhou|first2=Long|last3=Christensen|first3=Josef|last4=Marlétaz|first4=Ferdinand|last5=Liu|first5=Shiping|last6=Li|first6=Fang|last7=Jansen|first7=Peter Gildsig|last8=Spiga|first8=Enrico|last9=Hansen|first9=Matilde Thye|last10=Pedersen|first10=Signe Vendelbo Horn|last11=Biswas|first11=Shameek|last12=Serikawa|first12=Kyle|last13=Fox|first13=Brian A.|last14=Taylor|first14=William R.|last15=Mulley|first15=John Frederick|last16=Zhang|first16=Guojie|last17=Heller|first17=R. Scott|last18=Holland|first18=Peter W. H.|date=2017-07-18|title=Genome sequence of a diabetes-prone rodent reveals a mutation hotspot around the ParaHox gene cluster|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=114|issue=29|pages=7677–7682|doi=10.1073/pnas.1702930114|issn=0027-8424|pmid=28674003|pmc=5530673|doi-access=free|bibcode=2017PNAS..114.7677H }}

It contains the following species:

• Fat sand rat, Psammomys obesus
• Thin sand rat, Psammomys vexillaris