Antillean Giant Rice Rat

Taxobox
name = Antillean Giant Rice Rat
status = EX | status_system = IUCN2.3
extinct = 1902
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Cricetidae
subfamilia = Sigmodontinae
genus = "Megalomys"
species = "M. desmarestii"
binomial = "Megalomys desmarestii"
binomial_authority = (Fischer, 1829)

The Antillean Giant Rice Rat ("Megalomys desmarestii") is an extinct rice rat from Martinique in the Caribbean. It was the largest species of West Indian rice rat, as big as a cat, and was the last species to become extinct. When pursued, it often took to water and may have been partially aquatic but they never moved far off the island. Nobody knows how it came to Martinique. It was common on Martinique until the end of the nineteenth century. It was a pest in coconut plantations, and attempts were made to exterminate it. It was also hunted for food. To subdue its musky odor, people had to singe off its hair, expose its body overnight and boil it in two batches of water. At 7.52 a.m. on 8 May 1902, the volcano Mt. Pelée erupted, devastating the islandVerify source|date=August 2007. Only one human survivedVerify source|date=August 2007 and the rice rat became extinct then, or during a later eruption in 1902.

References

* Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is listed as extinct
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