''Echimys'' is a genus of the spiny rats family, the
Echimyidae
Echimyidae is the family of neotropical spiny rats and their fossil relatives. This is the most species-rich family of hystricognath rodents. It is probably also the most ecologically diverse, with members ranging from fully arboreal to ter ...
.
Members of this genus are collectively called
spiny tree-rat Spiny tree-rats are all found in the rodent family Echimyidae. They are found in the following genera:
* ''Echimys''
* ''Lonchothrix''
* ''Mesomys''
* '' Makalata''
* ''Pattonomys
''Pattonomys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Echimyidae, nam ...
s.
The genus name ''Echimys'', and also its
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...
''Echinomys'',
derive from the two
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
words (), meaning "hedgehog", and (), meaning "mouse, rat".
Classification
The genus contains three extant species
*
White-faced spiny tree-rat
The white-faced spiny tree-rat (''Echimys chrysurus'') is a spiny rat species from South America. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname.
The etymology of the species name derives from the two ancient greek words (), ''gold' ...
- ''Echimys chrysurus''
*
Dark spiny tree-rat - ''Echimys saturnus''
*
Vieira's spiny tree-rat - ''Echimys vieirai''
Members of the genera ''
Callistomys'', ''
Makalata
''Makalata'' is a genus of rodents in the family Echimyidae.
Systematics
The etymology of this genus name derives from a combination of letters inspired by the Suriname native name ''Maka-alata'' for spiny rats.
This genus contains the followin ...
'', ''
Pattonomys'', and ''
Phyllomys'' were all formerly considered part of the genus ''Echimys''.
Phylogeny
''Echimys'' is the sister genus to ''Phyllomys'', and then to ''Makalata''. These taxa are closely related to the genera ''Pattonomys'' and ''Toromys''.
In turn, these five genera share phylogenetic affinities with a clade containing the bamboo rats ''Dactylomys'', ''Olallamys'', ''Kannabateomys'' together with ''Diplomys'' and ''Santamartamys''.
References
Rodent genera
Taxa named by Georges Cuvier
{{Echimyidae-stub