Heptaxodontidae
Sign in to saveHeptaxodontidae, rarely called giant hutia, is an extinct family of large rodents known from fossil and subfossil material found in the West Indies. One species, Amblyrhiza inundata, is estimated to have weighed between , reaching the weight of an eastern gorilla. This is twice as large as the capybara, the largest rodent living today, but still much smaller than Josephoartigasia monesi, the largest rodent known. These animals were probably used as a food source by the pre-Columbian peoples of the Caribbean.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, Heptaxodontidae is referenced by 79 other articles, and connects out to Twisted-toothed mouse, Blunt-toothed giant hutia and Osborn's key mouse.
It sits within the topics Caviomorpha, Fossils of the Caribbean and Heptaxodontidae.
Its subject is documented across 19 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Chinchilloidea
Show 4 more facts
- taxon rank
- family
- taxon name
- Heptaxodontidae
- Code of nomenclature
- International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
- topic's main category
- Category:Heptaxodontidae
Sources (1)
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- See also
- Bibliography
Heptaxodontidae, rarely called giant hutia, is an extinct family of large rodents known from fossil and subfossil material found in the West Indies. One species, Amblyrhiza inundata, is estimated to have weighed between , reaching the weight of an eastern gorilla. This is twice as large as the capybara, the largest rodent living today, but still much smaller than Josephoartigasia monesi, the largest rodent known. These animals were probably used as a food source by the pre-Columbian peoples of the Caribbean.
Heptaxodontidae contains no living species and the grouping seems to be paraphyletic and arbitrary, however. One of the smaller species, Quemisia gravis, may have survived as late as when the Spanish began to colonize the Caribbean.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Heptaxodontidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.