Curaçao Rice Rat

Taxobox
name = Curaçcao Rice Rat
status = EX
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Cricetidae
subfamilia = Sigmodontinae
genus = "Oryzomys"
species = "O. curasoae"
binomial = "Oryzomys curasoae"
binomial_authority = McFarlane & Debrot, 2001

The Curaçao Rice Rat ("Oryzomys curasoae") is an extinct species of rice rat in genus "Oryzomys" known from subfossils from the island of Curaçao, Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was found with the Black Rat ("Rattus rattus"), which implies that it became extinct after the first European contact with Curaçao in 1499. The Curaçao Rice Rat has itself probably outcompeted the older "Megalomys curazensis", another rice rat, from the island. The Curaçao Rice Rat was a relatively large species. The molars were about 4,7 mm in length.

The species was originally described, in 2001, as a member of "subgenus" "Oecomys", but it has been retained in the genus "Oryzomys" in recent studies. It has even been suggested that it is the same species as the mainland Colombian and Venezuelan Gorgas's Rice Rat ("Oryzomys gorgasi"). [Weksler et al., 2006, table 1]

Notes

References

*McFarlane, D.A. & Debrot, A.O. 2001. A new species of extinct oryzomyine rodent from the Quaternary of Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles. Caribbean Journal of Science 37(3-4):182-184.
*cite book | last=Musser|first=G.G.|coauthors=Carleton, M.D.|year=2005|chapter=Superfamily Muroidea|pages=p. 1152|editor=Wilson, D.E. & Reeder, D.M.|title=Mammal Species of the World: Above the Species Level|edition=3rd edition|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore
*Weksler, M., Percequillo, A.R. & Voss, R.S. 2006. Ten new genera of oryzomyine rodents (Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae). American Museum Novitates 3537:1-29.