Reigomys | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Cricetidae |
Subfamily: | Sigmodontinae |
Tribe: | Oryzomyini |
Genus: | †Reigomys Machado et al., 2014 |
Species: | †R. primigenus
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Binomial name | |
†Reigomys primigenus (Steppan 1996)
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Reigomys primigenus is an extinct oryzomyine rodent known from Pleistocene deposits in Tarija Department, southeastern Bolivia. It is known from a number of isolated jaws and molars which show that its molars were almost identical to those of the living Lundomys. On the other hand, the animal possesses a number of derived traits of the palate which document a closer relationship to living Holochilus, the genus of South American marsh rats, and for this reason it was placed in the genus Holochilus when it was first described in 1996. The subsequent discoveries of Noronhomys and Carletonomys, which may be more closely related to extant Holochilus than H. primigenus is, have cast its placement in Holochilus into doubt, and it was ultimately made the type species of a separate genus, Reigomys.