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"Megalomys" curazensis Hooijer, 1959

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

In the opinion of Dr. Samuel Turvey, Megalomys should be restricted to the main Lesser Antillean chain (S. Turvey, in litt.), thereby implying that "M." curazensis needs to be transferred to another (new?) genus.

 

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: Late Pleistocene

 

Distribution

Curaçao, Venezuela

 

Biology & Ecology

 

 

Hypodigm

 

 

Media

 

 

References

Original scientific description:

Hooijer, D. A. (1959). Fossil rodents from Curaçao and Bonaire. Studies on the Fauna of Curaçao and other Caribbean Islands 9: 1-27.

 

Other references:

Alcover, Josep Antoni et al. (1998). Mammal Species of the World: Additional Data on Insular Mammals. American Museum Novitates 3248, 29 pp., 1 table.

Brace, Selina et al. (2015). Unexpected evolutionary diversity in a recently extinct Caribbean mammal radiation. Proc Biol Sci. B 282(1807): 20142371.

Buisonjé, P.H. de. 1974. Neogene and Quaternary geology of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire. Uitgaven "Natuurwetenschappelijke Studiekring voor Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen" 74: 1-291.

Hooijer DA (1966) Fossil mammals of the Netherlands Antilles. Archives Néerlandaises de Zoologie 16, 531–532.

McFarlane, D. A. and Lundberg, J. (2002). A middle Pleistocene age and biogeography for the extinct rodent Megalomys curazensis from Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. Caribbean Journal of Science 38: 278-281.

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.T., Weksler, M., Morris, E.L. & Nokkert, M. 2010 Taxonomy, phylogeny and diversity of the extinct Lesser Antillean rice rats (Sigmodontinae: Oryzomyini), with description of a new genus and species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 160: 748-772.

 

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