Megalomys audreyae

Megalomys audreyae
Temporal range: Quaternary
Holotype mandible (lower jaw) of Megalomys audreyae, seen from the right (lingual view) above and from the left (labial view) below.[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Sigmodontinae
Genus: †Megalomys
Species:
†M. audreyae
Binomial name
†Megalomys audreyae
Hopwood, 1926[2]
Synonyms
  • Oryzomys (Megalomys) majori Trouessart, 1904 (nomen nudum)
  • Megalomys audreyae Hopwood, 1926
  • Oryzomys (Megalomys) audreyae: Ray, 1962

Megalomys audreyae, known as the Barbudan (?) muskrat[3] or the Barbuda giant rice rat,[4] is an extinct oryzomyine rodent from Barbuda in the Lesser Antilles. Described on the basis of a single mandible (lower jaw) with the first molar missing and an isolated upper incisor, both of uncertain but Quaternary age, it is one of the smaller members of the genus Megalomys. Little is known about the animal, and its provenance and distinction from "Ekbletomys hypenemus", an even larger extinct oryzomyine that also occurred on Barbuda, have been called into question. The toothrow in the lower jaw has a length of 8.7 mm at the alveoli. The third molar is relatively narrow and both the second and third molars have a wide valley between their outer cusps.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference RplXIV was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Hopwood, A.T. 1926. A fossil rice-rat from the Pleistocene of Barbuda. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (9)17:328–330.
  3. ^ Ray, C.E. 1962. The Oryzomyine Rodents of the Antillean Subregion. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Harvard University, 211 pp.
  4. ^ MacPhee and Flemming, 1999, table 2