Plate-toothed giant hutia

Plate-toothed giant hutia Temporal range: Late Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	† Heptaxodontidae
Genus:	† Elasmodontomys Anthony, 1916
Species:	†E. obliquus
Binomial name
†Elasmodontomys obliquus Anthony, 1916
Synonyms
Heptaxodon obliquus

The plate-toothed giant hutia (Elasmodontomys obliquus) is an extinct species of rodent in the family Heptaxodontidae. It is the only species within the genus Elasmodontomys. It was found in Puerto Rico. ^[1]

Description

The rodent is thought to have weighed 13 kilograms (29 lb) and survived for at least 2000 years after humans colonised Puerto Rico. ^[2]

Taxonomy

Despite being described as a "giant hutia", it has recently been recovered as a member of the Chinchilloidea. ^[3]

References

1. 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. pp. 1538–1600. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
2. Turvey, S. T.; Oliver, J. R.; Narganes Storde, Y. M.; Rye, P. (2007). "Late Holocene extinction of Puerto Rican native land mammals". Biology Letters. 3 (2): 193–196. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0585. PMC   2375922 . PMID   17251123.
3. Marivaux, Laurent; Vélez-Juarbe, Jorge; Merzeraud, Gilles; Pujos, François; Viñola López, Lázaro W.; Boivin, Myriam; Santos-Mercado, Hernán; Cruz, Eduardo J.; Grajales, Alexandra; Padilla, James; Vélez-Rosado, Kevin I. (2020-02-12). "Early Oligocene chinchilloid caviomorphs from Puerto Rico and the initial rodent colonization of the West Indies". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 287 (1920) 20192806. doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.2806. ISSN   0962-8452. PMC   7031660 . PMID   32075529.