Armored rat

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Armored rat
Hoplomys gymnurus1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Echimyidae
Subfamily: Echimyinae
Tribe: Myocastorini
Genus: Hoplomys
J. A. Allen, 1908
Species:
H. gymnurus
Binomial name
Hoplomys gymnurus
(Thomas, 1897)
Distribution of Hoplomys gymnurus.png
Distribution of the armored rat

The armored rat (Hoplomys gymnurus) is a species of rodent in the family Echimyidae. It is monotypic within the genus Hoplomys. [2] It is found in Latin America, from northern Honduras to northwest Ecuador. It possesses a range of spines on its back and sides of the body. [3]

Contents

Description

Adults weigh between 218–790 grams (0.481–1.742 lb) with males weighing more on average than females. They are born with soft fur, and the spines begin growing after the first month. The thick spines on the back and sides measure up to 33 millimetres (1.3 in) and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in diameter. [4] The head and body measures between 220–320 millimetres (8.7–12.6 in) in length, with the tail adding another 150–255 millimetres (5.9–10.0 in). [4] The color of the armored rat range from black to reddish brown, and has a pure white underside. They are similar in appearance to Tome's spiny-rat, but the eyes of the armored rat are smaller and they have a longer snout. [3] Its diet includes fruit, insects and green plant matter. The normal litter size is one to three. [3]

Habitat

The armored rat is a terrestrial species, which occupies burrows. These burrows are usually positioned in steep banks close to a water source, and can measure up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length before reaching an enlarged nesting chamber. [3] The armored rat covers its nesting chamber with vegetation and keeps it dry. It uses a separate chamber for defecating. [5]

This species is distributed from northern Honduras to northwest Ecuador, from lowlands up to around 800 metres (2,600 ft) in altitude, [3] including Panama's isolated Caribbean island of Isla Escudo de Veraguas. [6]

Behaviour

The armored rat is nocturnal, spending most of its day inside its burrow and coming out at night to forage for food. It primarily eats fruits like bananas, wild figs, avocados, and mangoes, but it will also hunt insects like beetles and grasshoppers. It exhibits caching behaviour, bringing back some food to its burrow. [5]

The armored rat is considered a seed disperser for the palm Attalea butyraceae , as well as an ecosystem engineer, with its many pathways and burrows creating microhabitats for smaller organisms and nests for other animals—with one armored rat burrow found to contain an extra cavity full of iguanid lizard eggs. [5]

While some armoured rats breed year-round, others will time their breeding to coincide with the rain. Pregnant females have been found from February to July. After 64 days of gestation, they give birth to a litter of one to three precocial pups (born without spiny fur). The young are sheltered in their mother's burrow and fed for some three to four weeks. By the time they're weaned off her milk, their fur has already begun to develop into spines. Armored rats mature at around 5 months of age. [5]

Etymology

Phylogeny

Part of the infraorder Hystricognathi and family Echimyidae, armored rats are more closely related to porcupines, Guinea pigs, chinchillas, and common degus than to the common brown rat. [9] [10]

Within Echimyidae, the genus Hoplomys is the sister group to the genus Proechimys. In turn, these two taxa share evolutionary affinities with other Myocastorini genera: Callistomys (painted tree-rats) and Myocastor (coypus or nutrias) on the one hand, and Thrichomys on the other hand.

Genus-level cladogram of the Myocastorini.
Myocastorini   
         

  Thrichomys (punaré)

         
         

  Hoplomys (armored rat)

  Proechimys

The cladogram has been reconstructed from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA characters. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

References

Specific
  1. ↑ Anderson, R.P.; Emmons, L. (2016). "Hoplomys gymnurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T10259A22206995. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T10259A22206995.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ↑ Woods, C.A.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2005). "Infraorder Hystricognathi". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1583. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Reid, Fiona (1997). A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America & Southeast Mexico. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 251–252. ISBN   978-0-19-534322-9.
  4. 1 2 Nowak, Ronald M (1999). Walker's Mammals of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1689. ISBN   978-0-8018-5789-8.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Cusick, Patrick. "Hoplomys gymnurus (armored rat)". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  6. ↑ Handley, C.O. (1959). "A review of the genus Hoplomys (thick-spined rats), with description of a new form from Isla Escudo de Veraguas, Panama". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 139 (4). Smithsonian Institution: 1–10. hdl:10088/22959. OCLC   906190284.
  7. ↑ Bailly, Anatole (1981-01-01). Abrégé du dictionnaire grec français. Paris: Hachette. ISBN   978-2-01-003528-9. OCLC   461974285.
  8. ↑ Bailly, Anatole. "Greek-french dictionary online". www.tabularium.be. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  9. ↑ Huchon, Dorothée; Douzery, Emmanuel J.P. (2001). "From the Old World to the New World: A Molecular Chronicle of the Phylogeny and Biogeography of Hystricognath Rodents". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 20 (2): 238–251. Bibcode:2001MolPE..20..238H. doi:10.1006/mpev.2001.0961. PMID   11476632.
  10. ↑ Reid, Fiona (2010). The Wildlife of Costa Rica. Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Pub. Associates. p. 17. ISBN   978-0-8014-7610-5.
  11. ↑ Galewski, Thomas; Mauffrey, Jean-François; Leite, Yuri L. R.; Patton, James L.; Douzery, Emmanuel J. P. (2005). "Ecomorphological diversification among South American spiny rats (Rodentia; Echimyidae): a phylogenetic and chronological approach". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 34 (3): 601–615. Bibcode:2005MolPE..34..601G. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.11.015. PMID   15683932.
  12. ↑ Upham, Nathan S.; Patterson, Bruce D. (2012). "Diversification and biogeography of the Neotropical caviomorph lineage Octodontoidea (Rodentia: Hystricognathi)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 63 (2): 417–429. Bibcode:2012MolPE..63..417U. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2012.01.020. PMID   22327013.
  13. ↑ Fabre, Pierre-Henri; Galewski, Thomas; Tilak, Marie-ka; Douzery, Emmanuel J. P. (2013-03-01). "Diversification of South American spiny rats (Echimyidae): a multigene phylogenetic approach". Zoologica Scripta. 42 (2): 117–134. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2012.00572.x. ISSN   1463-6409. S2CID   83639441.
  14. ↑ Loss, Ana; Moura, Raquel T.; Leite, Yuri L. R. (2014). "Unexpected phylogenetic relationships of the painted tree rat Callistomys pictus (Rodentia: Echimyidae)" (PDF). Natureza on Line. 12: 132–136.
  15. ↑ Fabre, Pierre-Henri; Vilstrup, Julia T.; Raghavan, Maanasa; Der Sarkissian, Clio; Willerslev, Eske; Douzery, Emmanuel J. P.; Orlando, Ludovic (2014-07-01). "Rodents of the Caribbean: origin and diversification of hutias unravelled by next-generation museomics". Biology Letters. 10 (7) 20140266. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2014.0266. ISSN   1744-9561. PMC   4126619 . PMID   25115033.
  16. ↑ Upham, Nathan S.; Patterson, Bruce D. (2015). "Evolution of Caviomorph rodents: a complete phylogeny and timetree for living genera". In Vassallo, Aldo Ivan; Antenucci, Daniel (eds.). Biology of caviomorph rodents: diversity and evolution. Buenos Aires: SAREM Series A, Mammalogical Research — Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de los Mamíferos. pp. 63–120.
  17. ↑ Fabre, Pierre-Henri; Upham, Nathan S.; Emmons, Louise H.; Justy, Fabienne; Leite, Yuri L. R.; Loss, Ana Carolina; Orlando, Ludovic; Tilak, Marie-Ka; Patterson, Bruce D.; Douzery, Emmanuel J. P. (2017-03-01). "Mitogenomic Phylogeny, Diversification, and Biogeography of South American Spiny Rats". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 34 (3): 613–633. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msw261 . ISSN   0737-4038. PMID   28025278.
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