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HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER HYSTRICOMORPHA
--> INFRAORDER HYSTRICOGNATHI
--> FAMILY Echimyidae
SUBFAMILY Heteropsomyinae
| Author: | Anthony, 1917. | | Citation: | Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 37(4): 18. | | Comments: | Named by Anthony to reflect perceived relationship between Heteropsomys and Dasyprocta. Expanded by Kraglievich (1965) and Patterson and Pascual (1968a) to include Proechimys and associated genera. Modified by Woods (1982:386) wherein West Indian spiny rats were classified with capromyids. McKenna and Bell (1997) included the genera of the Eumysopinae within the Heteropsomyinae. West Indian spiny rats are transitional in characters between Echimyidae and Capromyidae, and here are placed in their own subfamily within the Echimyidae until the two families are revised. Molecular data (Leite and Patton, 2002) suggest that the sister taxa of both the myocastorids and capromyids is a group of the Eumysopinae including the genera Clyomys and Euryzygomatomys, but do not allow for evaluation of the distinctiveness of a West Indian clade of spiny rats (Heteropsominae) suggested by Woods (1982). Varona (1974:73) placed all West Indian spiny rats in the genus Heteropsomys. However, there are clear differences between the forms on each island, so the original generic names are maintained here, except that Homopsomys is combined with Heteropsomys (Woods, 1989a, b). |
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