This waterside rodent occurs in Venezuela and Guyana. Older accounts use Neusticomys venezuelae, reporting dark ear and foot hairs and captures by streams; MDD uses Daptomys venezuelae.
A key under the former name describes dark hairs covering the ears and feet.
Published records report captures along streams bordering evergreen lowland rainforest, semideciduous forest, or montane vegetation.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.