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 Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Suborder: | Hystricomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Hystricognathi |
| Parvorder: | Caviomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Chinchilloidea |
| Family: | †Heptaxodontidae Anthony, 1917 |
| Genera | |
†Amblyrhiza | |
Heptaxodontidae contains no living species and the grouping seems to be paraphyletic[1] and arbitrary, however. One of the smaller species, Quemisia gravis, may have survived as late as when the Spanish began to colonize the Caribbean.[2]
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.[3]
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
- Genus Quemisia
- Genus Xaymaca
- Xaymaca fulvopulvis from Jamaica
- Genus Amblyrhiza
- Subfamily Clidomyinae
- Genus Clidomys
- Clidomys osborni from Jamaica
- Genus Clidomys
- Subfamily Heptaxodontinae
See also
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 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
- 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.
- Woods, C.A.; Paéz, R.C.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2001). "Insular Patterns and Radiations of West Indian Rodents". In Woods, C.A.; Sergile, F.E. (eds.). Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives. Boca Raton, London, New York, and Washington, D.C.: CRC Press. pp. 335–354. doi:10.1201/9781420039481-18. ISBN 978-0-8493-2001-9.