Microcavia

''Microcavia'' (mountain cavies) is a genus of rodents in the family (biology), family Caviidae. They are unique within their family in that their premolar teeth do not grow and replace the original deciduous teeth, deciduous cheek teeth until after the animal is born; in other genera this occurs in the womb.

It contains six extant species:
* Southern mountain cavy, ''M. australis''
*Jayat's mountain cavy, ''M. jayat''
*Thomas's mountain cavy, ''M. maenas''
* Andean mountain cavy, ''M. niata''
* Shipton's mountain cavy, ''M. shiptoni''
*Sorojchi mountain cavy, ''M. sorojchi''

Four fossil species are traditionally recognized, including the type species of this genus:
*''Microcavia chapalmalensis''
*''Microcavia reigi''
*''Microcavia robusta''
*''Microcavia typus''

At least nine other fossil species have also been named, dating back to the mid Pliocene, although it is unclear how many of these are truly valid.

References

Cavies
Rodent genera
Taxa named by Paul Gervais
Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

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