Heptaxodontidae

Heptaxodontidae Temporal range:
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Hystricomorpha
Infraorder:	Hystricognathi
Parvorder:	Caviomorpha
Superfamily:	Chinchilloidea
Family:	†Heptaxodontidae Anthony, 1917
Genera
†Amblyrhiza †Clidomys †Elasmodontomys †Quemisia †Xaymaca

Heptaxodontidae, rarely called giant hutia, is an extinct family of large rodents known from fossil and subfossil material found in the West Indies. One species, Amblyrhiza inundata, is estimated to have weighed between 50 and 200 kg (110 and 440 lb), reaching the weight of an eastern gorilla. This is twice as large as the capybara, the largest rodent living today, but still much smaller than 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 and arbitrary, however. One of the smaller species, Quemisia gravis, may have survived as late as when the Spanish began to colonize the Caribbean.

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.

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
      • Xaymaca fulvopulvis from Jamaica
  • Subfamily Clidomyinae
    • Genus Clidomys
      • Clidomys osborni from Jamaica

See also

• Island gigantism

References

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
• 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.