Tenerife giant rat

Tenerife giant rat
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene
Skull housed in Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Murinae
Genus: Canariomys
Species: C. bravoi
Binomial name
Canariomys bravoi
Crusafont Pairó & Petter, 1964

The Tenerife giant rat (Canariomys bravoi) is an extinct species of rodent endemic to the island of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, Spain. Many remains have been found during archeological digs. Most remains are from the Pleistocene. Radiocarbon dating has placed some of the finds in the late Pleistocene.[1]

Discovery

Fossilized remains of this animal have been found practically in every part of the island, but especially in deposits in caves or volcanic pipes of the island, where it often appears together with remains of other species such as the giant lizards (Gallotia goliath). In particular, its bony remains have been discovered in large amounts in the deposit of Buenavista del Norte (in the northwest of Tenerife).

Their fossils date back to the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. The first fossils were found by the naturalist Telesforo Bravo, from whom the name of the rodent is derived. Biologists Crusafont-Pairó and Petter first described the giant rat in 1964.

The giant rat, along with some other endemic species of the islands, became extinct due to the activities of the initial human colonists (the Guanches), including their introduction of feral cats.

Today, the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre in Santa Cruz de Tenerife exhibits fossil skulls and bones of this animal, as well as faithful reconstructions. Another giant rat of the Canary Islands was Canariomys tamarani.

Description

Fossils in Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre.

This species was a big rat of about 1 kg.[2] It had a cranium that reached up to seven centimetres in length. Including the tail, the rat was over 114 centimetres, making it the largest of its family (at least in the Canaries).

See also

References

  1. Michaux, J., N. Lopez-Martinez, and J. J. Hernadez-Pachero. 1996. A 14C dating of Canariomys bravoi (Mammalia, Rodentia), the extinct giant rat from Tenerife. (Canary Islands, Spain), and the recent history of the endemic mammals in the archipelago Vie et Milieu 46:261–266.
  2. Musser, G.G.; Carleton, M.D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1357. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.