''Heteromys'' is a genus of
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...
s in the family
Heteromyidae,
commonly known as spiny pocket mice. It is the only extant genus in the subfamily
Heteromyinae which also includes the extinct genera ''
Diprionomys'' and ''
Metaliomys
''Metaliomys'' is an extinct genus of Heteromyidae that existed in the United States during the Late Miocene
The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian ...
''.
''Heteromys'' was recently enlarged by inclusion of the members of formerly recognized heteromyine genus ''Liomys'', which was found to be
paraphyletic
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...
.
Distribution
Heteromyines are distributed from southern
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
to
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, and include all but
one
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
of the
castorimorph species of South America. Like all of South America's other non-
caviomorph
Caviomorpha is the rodent infraorder or parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is ...
rodents, they arrived in the continent relatively recently as part of the
Great American Interchange
The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange, was an important late Cenozoic paleozoogeographic biotic interchange event in which lan ...
. They inhabit mainly forests; some are also found in scrubland.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Heteromys'' comprises the following species of spiny pocket mice:
*
Panamanian spiny pocket mouse (''H. adspersus'')
*
Trinidad spiny pocket mouse (''H. anomalus'')
*
Southern spiny pocket mouse (''H. australis'')
*
Overlook spiny pocket mouse (''
H. catopterius'')
*
Desmarest's spiny pocket mouse (''H. desmarestianus'')
*
Gaumer's spiny pocket mouse (''H. gaumeri'')
*
Goldman's spiny pocket mouse (''H. goldmani'')
*
Mexican spiny pocket mouse (''H. irroratus'')
*
Nelson's spiny pocket mouse (''H. nelsoni'')
*
Cloud-dwelling spiny pocket mouse (''
H. nubicolens'')
*
Paraguaná spiny pocket mouse (''H. oasicus'')
*
Mountain spiny pocket mouse (''H. oresterus'')
*
Painted spiny pocket mouse (''H. pictus'')
*
Salvin's spiny pocket mouse
Salvin's spiny pocket mouse (''Heteromys salvini'') is a small to medium-sized rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It was formerly placed in the genus ''Liomys'', which is now recognized to be paraphyletic and has been subsumed into ''Heteromys''. ...
(''H. salvini'')
*
Jaliscan spiny pocket mouse (''H. spectabilis'')
*
Ecuadoran spiny pocket mouse (''H. teleus'')
References
Rodent genera
Taxa named by Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest
Mammals described in 1817
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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