Megalomys is a genus of rodent in the family Cricetidae, part of the tribe Oryzomyini. The genus contains five large rodents from various Caribbean islands, of which two are known to have survived into modern times, but all of which are now extinct. The last species to survive was M. desmarestii from Martinique, which became extinct after the Mount Pelée eruption in 1902. Ancient DNA analysis places Megalomys forming a clade with Pennatomys, sister to the clade containing Aegialomys, Nesoryzomys, Melanomys and Sigmodontomys, having diverged from the mainland clade around 7 million years ago.[1]
It contains the following species:
Recently extinct species:
Megalomys desmarestii (Martinique giant rice rat)
Megalomys luciae (Saint Lucia giant rice rat)
Fossil species:
Megalomys audreyae (Barbuda giant rice rat)
Megalomys curazensis (Curaçao giant rice rat)
Megalomys georginae (Barbados giant rice rat)
^Brace, Selina; Turvey, Samuel T.; Weksler, Marcelo; Hoogland, Menno L. P.; Barnes, Ian (2015-05-22). "Unexpected evolutionary diversity in a recently extinct Caribbean mammal radiation". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1807): 20142371. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2371. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4424637. PMID 25904660.
Megalomys desmarestii, also known as the Martinique muskrat, Desmarest's pilorie, or the Martinique giant rice rat, is an extinct rice rat from Martinique...
Megalomys luciae, also known as the Saint Lucia pilorie or Saint Lucia giant rice-rat, as well as several variant spellings, is an extinct rodent that...
member of the Megalomys group, but he never published a description of the latter. Édouard Louis Trouessart gave the name Oryzomys (Megalomys) majori to...
Megalomys georginae is an extinct species of rice rat from Barbados in the genus Megalomys. The species was extant during the Late Pleistocene, and became...
Megalomys camerhogne is an extinct species of giant rice rat from Grenada in the genus Megalomys. It is known only from Pearls, an archeological site in...
Megalomys curazensis is a species of rodent from the Late Pleistocene (400,000 to 130,000 years ago) of the island of Curaçao, off northwestern Venezuela...
Sigmodontomys, Nectomys, most likely Amphinectomys, and the extinct Megalomys, Agathaeromys, and Pennatomys. Eremoryzomys, Cerradomys, Sooretamys, and...
cranial material. Megalomys desmarestii, a very large oryzomyine that became extinct by about 1900. It was closely related to Megalomys luciae, which occurred...
lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing. Family: Cricetidae Genus: Megalomys Barbados giant rice rat, M. georginae EX Family Leporidae Genus: Lepus...
giant rice rat Megalomys desmarestii Fischer, 1829 Rodentia 1902 1 Martinique Saint Lucia pilorie, or Saint Lucia giant rice rat Megalomys luciae Major...
panther anole. Previously, Barbuda was host to the Barbudan muskrat (Megalomys audreyae), an extinct rodent formerly endemic to the island. The Barbudan...
introduced by Amerindians in prehistoric times. An extinct species of rice rat Megalomys georginae was described in 2012 based on subfossil remains recovered from...
subspecies of the maned rat. Megalomys camerhogne Sp. nov Valid Mistretta et al. Holocene Grenada A species of Megalomys. Metacaremys Gen. et comb. et...
giant rice rat, Megalomys desmarestii (E) EX Barbados giant rice rat, Megalomys georginae (E) Saint Lucia giant rice rat, Megalomys luciae (E) EX Painted...
lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing. Family: Cricetidae Genus: Megalomys Grenada giant rice rat, M. camerhogne EX Family: Dasyproctidae Genus:...
megacephalus H. oniscus H. perenensis H. tatei H. yunganus Lundomys L. molitor †Megalomys †M. audreyae †M. curazensis †M. desmarestii †M. georginae †M. luciae Melanomys...
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