Lundomys
Lundomys molitor, also known as Lund’s amphibious rat or the greater marsh rat, is a semiaquatic rat species from southeastern South America. Its distribution is now restricted to Uruguay and nearby Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is a large rodent, with the head and body length averaging 193 mm, characterized by a long tail, large hindfeet, and long and dense fur. It builds nests above the water, supported by reeds, and it is not currently threatened.
About Lundomys in brief
Lundomys molitor, also known as Lund’s amphibious rat or the greater marsh rat, is a semiaquatic rat species from southeastern South America. Its distribution is now restricted to Uruguay and nearby Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It previously ranged northward into Minas Gerais, Brazil, and southward into eastern Argentina. It is a large rodent, with the head and body length averaging 193 mm, characterized by a long tail, large hindfeet, and long and dense fur. It builds nests above the water, supported by reeds, and it is not currently threatened. Its external morphology is similar to that of Holochilus brasiliensis, and over the course of its complex taxonomic history it has been confused with that species. Other features support its placement in a distinct genus, Lundomys. Within the family Cricetidae and subfamily Sigmodontinae, it is a member of a group of specialized oryzomyine rodents that also includes Holochilus, Noronhomys, Carletonomys, and Pseudoryzomys and Oryzomyini. It was first described in 1888 by Danish zoologist Herluf Winge, who reviewed the materials Peter Wilhelm Lund had collected in the caves of Lagoa Santa, MinasGerais. In 1981, H. magnus was also recognized in the Late Pleistocene of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, and in 1982 it was recorded from Rio GrandeDo Sul in southern Brazil.
In a 1993 paper, American zoologists Voss and Carleton restudied Winge’s material and found no consistent differences between the two and accordingly considered them to pertain to the same species. In the same paper, they diagnosed the tribe OryZomyini for the first time in a phylogenetically valid way. It has been a somewhat loosely defined group defined among a long palate and the presence of a mesolophid crest on the upper molars and on the lower molars. The presence of this crest has been universally found to support some of the other genera, but not universally found in some others. The placement of Lundomy’s in the group, all of which are shared by Lundomini, has also been found to be supported by some other synapomorphies, such as the lack of a complete molars on the molars, and the reduced or reduced molar crest on lower molar molars in some other species. The species has been known as L. molitor since 1888, but it is now known to be Lundomynos molitor. It can be found in Uruguay and Rio Grandedo Sul, as well as in Argentina and Paraguay, and is not threatened by humans.
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This page is based on the article Lundomys published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
