Boromys torrei Allen, 1917:6
Torre’s cave rat, Small Cuban spiny rat
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Holocene (Turvey & Helgen, 2008); 1500 (Fisher & Blomberg, 2012); 1850 (Lee et al., 2017)
IUCN status: Extinct
Boromys torrei is only known from subfossil remains, some of which have been found in the same layer as Rattus sp., implying that it survived until European colonisation (Turvey & Helgen, 2008).
Distribution
Cuba
Biology
Hypodigm
Holotype: MCZ VP9601 (palate)
Type locality: Cuba: Matanzas Province, cave in Sierra de Hato Nuevo.
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Allen, Glover Morrill. (1917). New fossil mammals of Cuba. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 61: 3-12.
Other references:
Allen, Glover Morrill. (1918). Fossil mammals from Cuba. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 62: 133-148.
Anthony, H. E. (1919). Mammals collected in eastern Cuba in 1917. With descriptions of two new species. Bulletin of American Museum of Natural History 41: 625-643.
Aranda, E., Viñola-López, L. W., & Álvarez-Lajonchere, L. (2020). New insights on the quaternary fossil record of Isla de la Juventud, Cuba. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 102: 102656.
Borroto-Páez, Rafael and Mancina, Carlos A. (2017). Biodiversity and conservation of Cuban mammals: past, present, and invasive species. Journal of Mammalogy 98(4): 964-985. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx017
Borroto-Páez, Rafael, Mancina, Carlos A., Woods, Charles A. and Kilpatrick, C. William. (2012). Checklist: Updated Checklist of Endemic Terrestrial Mammals of the West Indies, pp. 389-415. In: Borroto-Páez, Rafael, Woods, Charles A. and Sergile, F. E. (eds.). Terrestrial Mammals of the West Indies: Contributions. Gainesville, Florida: Florida Museum of Natural History and Wacahoota Press. 482 pp.
Cooke, Siobhán B., Dávalos, Liliana M., Mychajliw, Alexis M. Turvey, Samuel T. and Upham, Nathan S. (2017). Anthropogenic Extinction Dominates Holocene Declines of West Indian Mammals. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 48: 301-327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110316-022754
Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.
Díaz-Franco, S. (2002). La variación del diseño oclusal inferior en Boromys torrei (Rodentia: Echimyidae). Revista Biología 16(1): 60-65.
Fisher, Diana O. and Blomberg, Simon P. (2012). Inferring Extinction of Mammals from Sighting Records, Threats, and Biological Traits. Conservation Biology 26(1): 57-67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01797.x
Fisher, Diana O. and Humphreys, Aelys M. (2024). Evidence for modern extinction in plants and animals. Biological Conservation 298: 110772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110772
Jiménez Vázquez O, C ondis MM, and Elvis García C (2005) Vertebrados post-glaciales en un residuario fósil de Tyto alba scopoli (Aves: Tytonidae) en el occidente de Cuba. Revista Mexicana de Mastozoología 9, 85–112.
Lee, T. E., Fisher, D. O., Blomberg, S. P. and Wintle, B. A. (2017). Extinct or still out there? Disentangling influences on extinction and rediscovery helps to clarify the fate of species on the edge. Global Change Biology 23(2): 621-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13421
Silva Taboada, G., Suárez Duque, W. & Díaz Franco, S. 2007 Compendio de los mamíferos terrestres autóctonos de Cuba vivientes y extinguidos. La Habana, Cuba: Museo Nacional de Historia Natural.
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]
Turvey, S. & Helgen, K. (2008). Boromys torrei. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 09 July 2011.
Turvey, S. & Helgen, K. 2016. Boromys torrei. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T2886A22206099. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T2886A22206099.en. Accessed on 02 July 2022.
Upham, Nathan S. (2017). Past and present of insular Caribbean mammals: understanding Holocene extinctions to inform modern biodiversity conservation. Journal of Mammalogy 98(4): 913-917. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx079
Woods, C.A., Borroto Paéz, R. & Kilpatrick, C.W. 2001 Insular patterns and radiations of West Indian rodents. In Biogeography of the West Indies: patterns and perspectives (ed. C.A. Woods & F.E. Sergile), pp. 335-353. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
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