Golden Vizcacha Rat

Taxobox
name = Golden Vizcacha Rat
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
subphylum = Vertebrata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
subordo = Hystricomorpha
superfamilia = Octodontoidea
familia = Octodontidae
tribus = Octodontini
genus = "Pipanacoctomys"
genus_authority = Mares, Braun, Barquez, and Díaz, 2000
species = "P. aureus"
binomial = "Pipanacoctomys aureus"
binomial_authority = Mares, Braun, Barquez, and Díaz, 2000The Golden Vizcacha Rat ("Pipanacoctomys aureus") is the single species of the genus "Pipanacoctomys". This animal has 2N=96 chromosomes, and is thought to have arisen through polyploidy, perhaps from the Mountain Vizcacha Rat, "Octomys mimax".

The recently described genus "Pipanacoctomys" is monotypic and known from Catamarca Province of northwestern Argentina, where specimens are known only from the Salar de Pipanaco. The genus receives its name from this locale, and “octo” for the figure-eight ridge on its cheek tooth.

"Pipanacoctomys" belongs to the family Octodontidae and the tribe Octodontini.

References

*Gallardo, M. H. "et al". (2004). Whole-genome duplications in South American desert rodents (Octodontidae). "Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 82", 443-451.
*Mares, Braun, Barquez, and Díaz. 2000. Two new genera and species of halophytic desert mammals from isolated salt flats in Argentina. Occasional Papers, Museum of Texas Tech University 203:i+1-27.
*Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder (Eds.). 2005. Mammal Species of the World, Third Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. 2 Volumes, 2141 pp.