Eocardiidae

Taxobox
name = Eocardiidae
fossil_range = Late Oligocene to Late Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
subordo = Hystricomorpha
familia = †Eocardiidae
familia_authority = Ameghino, 1891
subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies and Genera
subdivision = †Eocardiinae
* †"Chubutomys"
* †"Phanomys"
* †"Schistomys"
* †"Eocardia"
* †"Matiamys"
* †"Neophanomys"
†Luantinae
* †"Asteromys"
* †"Luantus"

The Eocardiidae are an extinct family of caviomorph rodents from South America. The family is probably ancestral to the living family Caviidae (Kramarz, 2006), which includes cavies, maras, and capybaras and their relatives. McKenna and Bell (1997) divided eocardiids into two subfamilies, Luantinae for two of the oldest genera ("Asteromys" and "Luantus") and Eocardiinae for remaining genera. Kramarz (2006) has recommended the abandonment of these subfamilies, as the genera placed in Luantinae appear to represent basal eocardiids, rather than a specialized side branch. The latter hypothesis had been proposed by Wood and Patterson (1959).

References

*Kramarz, A.G. 2006. Eocardiids (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from the Pinturas Formation, late early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina. "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology" 26(3):770-778.
*McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. "Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level." Columbia University Press, New York, 631 pp. ISBN 0-231-11013-8
*Wood, A.E. and Patterson, B. 1959. Rodents of the Deseadan Oligocene of Patagonia and the beginnings of South American rodent evolution. "Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology" 120:281-428.