Megalomys luciae

Megalomys luciae
Stuffed specimen
Conservation status
Extinct  (1881)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Cricetidae
Subfamily:	Sigmodontinae
Genus:	Megalomys
Species:	M. luciae
Binomial name
Megalomys luciae (Forsyth Major, 1901)
Synonyms
Oryzomys luciae Major, 1901

Megalomys luciae, also known as the Santa Lucian Pilorie^[2] or Santa Lucian Giant Rice Rat,^[1] as well as several variant spellings, is an extinct^[1] rodent that lived on the island of Saint Lucia in the eastern Caribbean. It was the size of a small cat, and it had a darker belly than Megalomys desmarestii, a closely related species from Martinique, and slender claws. The last known specimen died in London Zoo in 1852, after three years of captivity.^[3] It probably became extinct in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with the last record dating from 1881.^[4] There is a specimen in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London.

References

Literature cited

• Flannery, T. and Schouten, P. 2001. A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals. London: William Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-00819-2 (UK edition)
• Musser, G.G. and Carleton, M.D. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894–1531 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. 3rd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0
• Ray, C.E. 1962. The Oryzomyine Rodents of the Antillean Subregion. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Harvard University, 211 pp.
• Turvey, S. and Helgen, K. 2008. Megalomys luciae. In IUCN. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on November 24, 2009.