The Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat (''Cuscomys oblativus'') is a large species of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

chinchilla rat Chinchilla rats or ''chinchillones'' are members of the family Abrocomidae. This family has few members compared to most rodent families, with only nine known living species. They resemble chinchillas in appearance, with a similar soft fur and s ...

s, known from skeletal remains found by members of the Peruvian Expedition of 1912. The animals were buried alongside people in ancient

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...

tombs at

Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain range.UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, whic ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. It was considered

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

in 2008, but conservation status was changed to data deficient in 2016. Photos of a rodent taken at Machu Picchu in late 2009 likely show this species, a finding apparently confirmed in 2014. In 2020, as part of biodiversity study, a report was released with images that captured the rodent in the surroundings of

sanctuary. Originally assigned to the genus ''

Abrocoma ''Abrocoma'' is a genus of abrocomid rodents found in the Andes of South America, from southern Peru to central Chile. The genus contains eight species, most of which are found in isolated mountain ranges in northwestern Argentina. The olde ...

'', recent studies showed it to be more closely allied to ''

Cuscomys ashaninka ''Cuscomys'' is a genus of rodents found in the Andes of Cusco in southern Peru. These relatively large chinchilla rats are dark grey with a distinct white line running from the crown to the nose. The genus was coined in 1999 when ''C. ashani ...

'', a species unknown to science until 1999.

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Further reading