Caribbean giant rice rats
| Caribbean giant rice rats | ||||||||||||
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Megalomys desmarestii |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Megalomys | ||||||||||||
| Trouessart , 1881 |
The Caribbean giant rice rats ( Megalomys ) are a genus of New World mice , the four species of which are all extinct. These rodents were slightly larger than a muskrat : their head body length was about 35 cm, and a tail almost as long. These large rats were found on five islands in the Caribbean : Martinique , Barbados , Barbuda , St. Lucia, and Curaçao .
- Megalomys audreyae , Barbuda
- Megalomys curazensis , Curacao
- Megalomys desmarestii , Martinique
- Megalomys georginae , Barbados
- Megalomys luciae , Saint Lucia
While M. curazensis is only known to be fossilized from the Pleistocene , the four other species lived up to historical times and were exterminated by humans.
M. desmarestii was the largest of the species. The fur was colored red-brown on the top and white on the underside. This rat was extremely common in Martinique. The native Indian population hunted the rats to eat them. When the French took the island in the 17th century, they had the Indians forcibly deported and set up large plantations on which the giant rice rats caused severe damage. After this, the colonial authorities tried for centuries to exterminate the rats. The final extinction, however, brought the eruption of Mont Pelé , which completely destroyed the few still living animals.
Far less is known about M. luciae . This giant rice rat was a little smaller and colored a solid brown. The extinction probably took place in the 19th century. One specimen lived in London Zoo until 1852 .
M. audreyae is only known from bone fragments. The rats of this species probably still existed when the British took possession of the island of Barbuda in the 17th century. However, they did not survive the clearing of the entire shrub vegetation on the island of only 161 km².
The common rice rats ( Oryzomys ) are believed to be the closest relatives of the giant rice rats .
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- David Day : The Doomsday Book of Animals. A unique Natural History of 300 Vanished Species. Ebury Press, London 1981, ISBN 0-85223-183-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Turvey, ST; Brace, S .; Weksler, M. (2012). "A new species of recently extinct rice rat ( Megalomys ) from Barbados". Mammalian Biology. 77 (6): 404-413. doi: 10.1016 / j.mambio.2012.03.005
