O. peninsulae and another isolated population, O. nelsoni from the Islas Marías, were both retained as separate species, as was O. albiventer from montane mainland Mexico.[8] The genus Oryzomys currently includes about eight species distributed from the eastern United States (O. palustris) into northwestern South America (O. gorgasi).[19] Río San José no longer exists, having fallen prey to irrigation projects, and touristic development of its estuary has resulted in pollution.The lack of records for over a century, small distribution, and destruction of the only known habitat led Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales to consider the conservation status of O. peninsulae as "critically endangered, if not extinct".In 1922, Nelson suggested that it may have been introduced from another part of Mexico in a shipment of farm products, but this hypothesis is disproved by the clear differentiation from other western Mexican Oryzomys that the species exhibits.
The
marsh rice rat
(
Oryzomys palustris
), a relative of
O. peninsulae
from the eastern United States