The Panamanian spiny pocket mouse has records from lowlands and headwater areas in Panama. Dark spines are mixed into its back fur.
The back ranges from chocolate to gray-brown and is mixed with dark spines and orange hairs. The underside, limbs, and feet are yellowish white; the tail is bicolored.
Records place it below 600 m on the Pacific lowlands of central and western Panama, and in savannas in Caribbean headwater areas.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.