This pocket mouse is smaller than the Sonoran pocket mouse. Its rump spines vary, and the paper's records are from Sonora and Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico.
The paper describes it as smaller than the Sonoran pocket mouse (Chaetodipus goldmani). Its rump spines vary and may be absent.
The paper's specimen records associate it with shrub-covered, gravelly sites and thorn forest, including riverine woodland, in Sonora and Sinaloa.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.