Heptaxodontidae
| Heptaxodontidae Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Suborder: | Hystricomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Hystricognathi |
| Parvorder: | Caviomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Chinchilloidea |
| Family: | †Heptaxodontidae Anthony, 1917 |
| Genera | |
|
† | |
Heptaxodontidae, rarely called giant hutia, is an
Josephoartigasia monesi
, the largest rodent known. These animals were probably used as a food source by the pre-Columbian peoples of the Caribbean.
Heptaxodontidae contains no living species and the grouping seems to be
paraphyletic[1] and arbitrary, however. One of the smaller species, Quemisia gravis, may have survived as late as when the Spanish began to colonize the Caribbean.[2]
Despite the vernacular name, heptaxodontids are not closely related to the extant hutias of the family Echimyidae. Heptaxodontids are thought to be more closely related to the chinchillas.[3]
Taxonomy
Heptaxodontidae is divided into two subfamilies and contains six species in five genera.
- Family Heptaxodontidae
- Subfamily Heptaxodontinae
- Genus Amblyrhiza
- Amblyrhiza inundata from Anguilla and St. Martin
- Genus Elasmodontomys
- Elasmodontomys obliquus from Puerto Rico
- Genus Quemisia
- Quemisia gravis from Hispaniola
- Genus Xaymaca
- Genus
- Subfamily Clidomyinae
- Genus Clidomys
- Clidomys osbornifrom Jamaica
- Genus
- Subfamily Heptaxodontinae
See also
References
- ^ Thomas Defler (2018). History of Terrestrial Mammals in South America. Springer International Publishing. p. 154. Retrieved 2022-08-27.
- ISBN 9780831727826.
- PMID 25115033.
Bibliography
- Biknevicius, A. R.; McFarlane, Donald A. & MacPhee, R. D. E. (1993): Body size in Amblyrhiza inundata (Rodentia: Caviomorpha), an extinct megafaunal rodent from the Anguilla Bank, West Indies: estimates and implications. American Museum Novitates 3079: 1-26. PDF fulltext
- MacPhee, R. D. E. & Flemming, C. (2003): A possible heptaxodontine and other caviidan rodents from the Quaternary of Jamaica. American Museum Novitates 3422: 1-42. PDF fulltext
- Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1936 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
- Woods, C. A. 1989. Biogeography of West Indian rodents. Pages 741–797 in Biogeography of the West Indies: Past Present and Future. Sandhill Crane Press, Gainesville.
- Woods, C.A.; Paéz, R.C.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2001). "Insular Patterns and Radiations of West Indian Rodents". In Woods, C.A.; Sergile, F.E. (eds.). Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives. Boca Raton, London, New York, and Washington, D.C.: ISBN 978-0-8493-2001-9.