Echimyidae

Echimyidae
Temporal range: Late Oligocene–Recent
Several members of the Echimyidae. From top-left, clockwise: coypu, Ferreira's spiny tree-rat, Atlantic spiny rat, Desmarest's hutia.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Hystricomorpha
Infraorder: Hystricognathi
Parvorder: Caviomorpha
Superfamily: Octodontoidea
Family: Echimyidae
Gray, 1825
Type genus
Echimys
F. Cuvier, 1809
Subfamilies

Capromyinae
Echimyinae
Euryzygomatomyinae
Carterodontinae
†Adelphomyinae
†Eumysopinae
†Heteropsomyinae

Armored rat, Hoplomys gymnurus
White-tailed olalla rat, Olallamys albicauda
Red-crested tree rat, Santamartamys rufodorsalis[1]

Echimyidae is the family[2] of neotropical spiny rats and their fossil relatives.[3] This is the most species-rich family of hystricognath rodents.[4] It is probably also the most ecologically diverse, with members ranging from fully arboreal to terrestrial to fossorial to semiaquatic habits.[4] They presently exist mainly in South America; three members of the family also range into Central America, and the hutias are found in the West Indies in the Caribbean. Species of the extinct subfamily Heteropsomyinae formerly lived on Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico in the Antilles.

  1. ^ Emmons, Louise Hickock (2005). "A revision of the genera of arboreal Echimyidae (Rodentia: Echimyidae, Echimyinae), with descriptions of two new genera". Mammalian Diversification: From Chromosomes to phylogeography (A Celebration of the Career of James L. Patton). Vol. 133. University of California Press. pp. 247–310. ISBN 9780520098534.
  2. ^ Gray, J. E. (1825). "Outline of an attempt at the disposition of the Mammalia into tribes and families with a list of the genera apparently appertaining to each tribe". Annals of Philosophy. 10: 337–344.
  3. ^ Woods, C.A.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2005). "Family Echimyidae". 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. 1575–1592. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  4. ^ a b Myers, P. "Echimyidae: spiny rats". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. Retrieved 2013-01-06.