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Giant Hutia




  Name Giant Hutias
  Fossil Range Pleistocene
  Regnum Animal ia
  Phylum Chordata
  Classis Mammal ia
  Ordo Rodentia
  Subordo Hystricognathi
  Familia '''Heptaxodontidae'''
  Familia Authority Anthony, 1917
  Subdivision Ranks Genera


The giant hutias are an Extinct group of large Rodent s known from Fossil and Subfossil material in the West Indies. One species, '' Amblyrhiza Inundata '', is estimated to have weighed 150 kg and been as large as an American Black Bear . This is much larger than Capybara , the largest rodent living today, but still much smaller than '' Phoberomys Pattersoni '', the largest rodent to have ever lived. These animals may have persisted into historic times and were probably used as a food source by aboriginal humans. All giant hutias are in a single family '''Heptaxodontidae''', which contains no living species.


TAXONOMY

The giant hutias are divided into two subfamilies, four genera, and five species.



REFERENCES

  • Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. ''Walker's Mammals of the World'', 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1936 pp. ISBN 0-801-85789-9

  • Woods, C. A. 1989. Biogeography of West Indian rodents. Pp 741-797 in Biogeography of the West Indies: Past Present and Future. Sandhil Crane Press, Gainesville.