Pacarana
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| Pacarana Fossil range: Recent |
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| Dinomys branickii Peters, 1873 |
The pacarana (Dinomys branickii) is a rare and slow-moving South American rodent found only in tropical forests of the western Amazon River basin and adjacent foothills of the Andes Mountains from northwestern Venezuela and Colombia to western Bolivia.
It is a hystricognath rodent, and the sole extant member of the family Dinomyidae in Caviomorpha; initially, it was placed with true mice. Some evidence places the pacarana as closely related to the prehistoric giant rodents that ruled South America millions of years ago, such as Phoberomys pattersoni and Josephoartigasia monesi.
Also known as Count Branicki's terrible mouse, it is known as the "pacarama" ("false paca") by native Indians due to its superficial similarity to a different caviomorph rodent, the paca.
It has a chunky body and is large for a rodent, weighing up to 15 kg (33 pounds) and measuring up to 79 cm (31.1 inches) in length, not including the thick, furry tail.
[edit] References
- ^ Baillie (1996). Dinomys branickii. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 9 May 2006. Listed as Endangered (EN A1cd v2.3)
