Biology:Megalomys

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Short description: Extinct genus of rodents

Megalomys
Temporal range: 0.126–0.0000019 Ma
Middle Pleistocene - Holocene
Mus Nat Hist Nat 25022013 Megalomys desmarestii.jpg
Martinique giant rice rat (Megalomys desmarestii)
Mus Nat Hist Nat 25022013 Megalomys luciae.jpg
Saint Lucia giant rice rat (Megalomys luciae)
Scientific classification e
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Sigmodontinae
Tribe: Oryzomyini
Genus: Megalomys
Trouessart, 1881
Species

Megalomys audreyae
Megalomys curazensis
Megalomys desmarestii
Megalomys georginae
Megalomys luciae

Megalomys is a genus of rodent in the family Cricetidae, part of the tribe Oryzomyini. The genus contains five large rodents from various Caribbean islands, of which two are known to have survived into modern times, but all of which are now extinct. The last species to survive was M. desmarestii from Martinique, which became extinct after the Mount Pelée eruption in 1902. Ancient DNA analysis places Megalomys forming a clade with Pennatomys, sister to the clade containing Aegialomys, Nesoryzomys, Melanomys and Sigmodontomys, having diverged from the mainland clade around 7 million years ago.[1]

It contains the following species:

Recently extinct species:

Fossil species:

References

  1. Brace, Selina; Turvey, Samuel T.; Weksler, Marcelo; Hoogland, Menno L. P.; Barnes, Ian (2015-05-22). "Unexpected evolutionary diversity in a recently extinct Caribbean mammal radiation" (in en). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282 (1807): 20142371. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2371. ISSN 0962-8452. PMID 25904660. 

Wikidata ☰ Q572175 entry