Golden viscacha rat
| Golden viscacha rat | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pipanacoctomys | ||||||||||||
| Mares , Braun , Barquez & Díaz , 2000 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Pipanacoctomys aureus | ||||||||||||
| Mares et al., 2000 |
The golden viscacha rat ( Pipanacoctomys aureus ) is a species of rodent from the family of the turtle rats (Octodontidae) living in South America . It was not scientifically described until 2000 .
With a head rump length of around 17 to 18 centimeters, they are medium-sized representatives of the Trug rats. The tail is 13 to 14.5 inches long and ends in a bushy tassel. The fur of these animals is golden yellow on the upper side, the underside is whitish.
Golden Viscacha rats are so far only known from the Salar de Pipanaco, a salt flat in the Argentine province of Catamarca . There they have evidently adapted to a very dry habitat with salt plants . Otherwise nothing is known about their way of life. With the Chalchaleros viscacha rat , the same research team found another previously unknown species of tassel rat in the same year.
The golden viscacha rat, like the closely related red viscacha rat , is tetraploid , that is, it has four sets of chromosomes instead of the two found in all other mammals. The karyotype is 4n = 92.
literature
- Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
- Michael A. Mares, Janet K. Braun, Rubén M. Barquez, M. Mónica Díaz: Two new genera and species of halophytic desert mammals from isolated salt flats in Argentina. In: Museum of Texas Tech University. Occasional papers. No. 203, 2000, ISSN 0196-0237 , pp. 1–27, online (PDF; 7.96 MB) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Milton H. Gallardo, G. Kausel, A. Jiménez, C. Bacquet, C. González, J. Figueroa, N. Köhler, R. Ojeda: Whole-genome duplications in South American desert rodents (Octodontidae). In: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 82, No. 4, 2004, ISSN 0024-4066 , pp. 443-451, doi : 10.1111 / j.1095-8312.2004.00331.x .
Web link
- Tympanoctomys aureus inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Posted by: Ojeda, R. & Bidau, C., 2008. Retrieved December 22, 2013.