| Tuco-tuco Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Female Haig's tuco-tuco (Ctenomys haigi) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Suborder: | Hystricomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Hystricognathi |
| Parvorder: | Caviomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Octodontoidea |
| Family: | Ctenomyidae Lesson, 1842 |
| Genus: | Ctenomys Blainville, 1826 |
| Type species | |
| Ctenomys brasiliensis | |
| Species | |
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See text | |
A tuco-tuco is a neotropical rodent in the family Ctenomyidae.[1][2] Tuco-tucos belong to the only living genus of the family Ctenomyidae, Ctenomys, but they include approximately 60 different species. The common name, "tuco-tuco", comes from the "tuc-tuc" sound they make while they dig their burrows.[3]
The relationships among the species are debated by taxonomists. It has been described that they are in a state of "taxonomic chaos", but banded karyotypes have been used to help make progress on their taxonomic study.[4] Their closest relatives are degus and other octodontids.[1] All species of tuco-tucos are found in South America from Peru and central Brazil southward. The tuco-tucos of South America have an ecological role equivalent to that of the pocket gophers of North America.
They occupy an ecological niche previously taken by gondwanatheres such as Patagonia earlier in the Cenozoic.[5]
- ^ a b Woods, C.A.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2005). "Genus Ctenomys". 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. 1560–1570. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ^ Parada, Andrés; d'Elía, Guillermo; Bidau, Claudio J.; Lessa, Enrique P. (2011). "Species Groups and the Evolutionary Diversification of Tuco-Tucos, genus Ctenomys (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae)". Journal of Mammalogy. 92 (3): 671–682. doi:10.1644/10-MAMM-A-121.1. S2CID 85914060.
- ^ "Southern Tuco-tuco (Ctenomys australis)". ARKive. 4 October 2013. Archived 2013-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lessa, Enrique P.; Cook, Joseph A. (1998). "The Molecular Phylogenetics of Tuco-Tucos (genus Ctenomys, Rodentia: Octodontidae) Suggests an Early Burst of Speciation". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 9 (1): 88–99. doi:10.1006/mpev.1997.0445. PMID 9479698.
- ^ Chimento, Nicolás R.; Agnolin, Federico L.; Novas, Fernando E. (2015). "The bizarre 'metatherians' Groeberia and Patagonia, late surviving members of gondwanatherian mammals". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 27 (5): 603–623. doi:10.1080/08912963.2014.903945. hdl:11336/85076. S2CID 216591096.