Caviidae
Sign in to saveCaviidae, the cavy family, is composed of rodents native to South America and includes the domestic guinea pig, wild cavies, and the largest living rodent, the capybara. They are found across South America in open areas from moist savanna to thorn forests or scrub desert. This family of rodents has fewer members than most other rodent families, with 19 species in seven genera in three subfamilies.
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Caviidae is a family of South American rodents that includes familiar animals like the domestic guinea pig as well as the capybara, the world's largest living rodent. Although this family is relatively small compared to other rodent families, its members are widely distributed across South America in diverse habitats ranging from savannas to deserts.
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Taxonomy · GBIF
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderRodentia
- FamilyCaviidae
via GBIF · CC0
Article
3 sectionsContents
- Characteristics
- Classification
- References
Caviidae, the cavy family, is composed of rodents native to South America and includes the domestic guinea pig, wild cavies, and the largest living rodent, the capybara. They are found across South America in open areas from moist savanna to thorn forests or scrub desert. This family of rodents has fewer members than most other rodent families, with 19 species in seven genera in three subfamilies.
==Characteristics== thumb|left|Guinea pig skull on top of a capybara skull With the exception of the maras, which have a more rabbit-like appearance, caviids have short, heavy bodies and large heads. Most have no visible tails. They range in size from the smaller cavies at 22 cm in body length, and 300 grams in weight, up to the capybara, the largest of all rodents at 106 to 134 cm in length, and body weights of 35 to 66 kilograms. Even larger forms existed in the Pliocene, such as Phugatherium, which was about the size of a tapir.