| Sacha guinea pig | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Caviidae |
| Genus: | Cavia |
| Species: | C. patzelti |
| Binomial name | |
| Cavia patzelti Schliemann, 1982 | |
Cavia patzelti, commonly known as the Sacha guinea pig, is a species of Cavia native to Ecuador. Little is known about its population. [1]
The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig, also known as the cavy or domestic cavy, is a species of rodent belonging to the genus Cavia in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word cavy to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts, it is far more commonly referred to by the colloquial name guinea pig. Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not native to Guinea, nor are they closely related biologically to pigs, and the origin of the name is still unclear. They originated in the Andes of South America. Studies based on biochemistry and hybridization suggest they are domesticated animals that do not exist naturally in the wild, descendants of a closely related cavy species such as C. tschudii. They were originally domesticated as livestock for a source of meat, and continue to be consumed as food in some parts of the world.
Caviidae, the cavy family, is composed of rodents native to South America and includes the domestic guinea pig, wild cavies, and the largest living rodent, the capybara. They are found across South America in open areas from moist savanna to thorn forests or scrub desert. This family of rodents has fewer members than most other rodent families, with 19 species in 6 genera in 3 subfamilies.
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by something to which the name no longer applies. A misnomer may also be simply a word that someone uses incorrectly or misleadingly. The word "misnomer" does not mean "misunderstanding" or "popular misconception", and a number of misnomers remain in common usage — which is to say that a word being a misnomer does not necessarily make usage of the word incorrect.
Caviinae is a subfamily uniting all living members of the family Caviidae with the exception of the maras, capybaras, and Kerodon. The subfamily traditionally contained the guinea pig or cavy-like forms along with the cursorially adapted (running) Kerodon. Molecular results suggest the Caviinae as so defined would be paraphyletic and Kerodon is more closely related to maras and capybaras than to other caviines. This led Woods and Kilpatrick (2005) to unite Kerodon and capybaras into the subfamily Hydrochoerinae within the Caviidae. These studies also suggest Microcavia and Cavia are more closely related to one another than either is to Galea.
Cavia is a genus in the subfamily Caviinae that contains the rodents commonly known as guinea pigs or cavies. The best-known species in this genus is the domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, an important meat animal in South America and a common household pet outside of that continent.
The Brazilian guinea pig is a guinea pig species found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The shiny guinea pig is a guinea pig species of southeastern South America.
Santa Catarina's guinea pig or Moleques do Sul cavy is a rare guinea pig species of southeastern South America.
The greater guinea pig is a species of rodent found in the coastal strip of Brazil and Uruguay, where it lives in moist grassland and marshes.
The montane guinea pig is a species of caviid rodent found in the Andes in South America. The montane guinea pig is the likely ancestor of Cavia porcellus, the domestic cavy or domestic guinea pig.
Cavia anolaimae is a guinea pig species from South America. It is found in Colombia near Bogotá. It is believed to be a feral offshoot of the domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, and is often treated as a synonym of C. porcellus, but Zúñiga et al. (2002), based on morphologic characters, recognized them as different species. According to the molecular analysis of Dunnum and Salazar (2010) C. anolaimae is a subspecies of Cavia aperea, C. aperea anolaimae, and a possible synonymous of C. a. guianae.
Cavia guianae is a guinea pig species from South America. It is found in southern Venezuela, Guyana, and portions of northern Brazil. Some biologists believe it to be a feral offshoot of the domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus; others subsume it under the wild cavy, Cavia aperea.
The Muenster yellow-toothed cavy is a species of rodent in the family Caviidae. It is known only from one location in Valle Hermoso in the Bolivian Andes, at an elevation of 2557 m. Specimens from this location were shipped to Muenster, Germany in 1997 for laboratory research, where the species was recognized and described. Galea monasteriensis was recognized on the basis of morphological, behavioral, and reproductive differences from related species. However, its habits in the wild have not been studied.
C. nana may refer to:
C. magna may refer to:
C. intermedia may refer to:
Galea is a genus of South American rodents of the family Caviidae. Five extant species are known, found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Brazil. They are:
Alfred Nehring was a German zoologist and paleontologist.
Cavia may refer to:
