Agathaeromys

Agathaeromys
Temporal range: Mid-Late Pleistocene (Ensenadan-Lujanian)
~0.9–0.23 Ma
Left first upper molar of Agathaeromys donovani
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Sigmodontinae
Tribe: Oryzomyini
Genus: Agathaeromys
Zijlstra, Madern, and Van den Hoek Ostende, 2010
Type species
Agathaeromys donovani
Zijlstra, Madern, and Van den Hoek Ostende, 2010
Species
  • Agathaeromys donovani Zijlstra, Madern, and Van den Hoek Ostende, 2010
  • Agathaeromys praeuniversitatis Zijlstra, Madern, and Van den Hoek Ostende, 2010
Bonaire is an island off the northwestern coast of Venezuela.
Location of the island of Bonaire, the only place where fossils of Agathaeromys have been found.

Agathaeromys is an extinct genus of oryzomyine rodents from the Pleistocene of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Two species are known, which differ in size and some details of tooth morphology. The larger A. donovani, the type species, is known from hundreds of teeth that are probably 900,000 to 540,000 years old, found in four localities. A. praeuniversitatis, the smaller species, is known from 35 teeth found in a single fossil site, which is probably 540,000 to 230,000 years old.

Although material of Agathaeromys was first described in 1959, the genus was not formally named and diagnosed until 2010. It probably belongs to "clade D" within the oryzomyine group, together with many other island-dwelling species. The molars of both species possess several accessory crests in addition to the main cusps. In addition to some differences in features of the chewing surface of the molars, A. donovani has more roots on its lower molars than does A. praeuniversitatis.