The Flores giant rat (''Papagomys armandvillei'') is a rodent of the family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are either the largest or second-largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 870 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. ...

that occurs on the island of

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It has been recorded in Rutong Protection Forest. The species is found in primary, secondary and disturbed forest over a wide range of elevations. Its head and body length is and its tail length is . These dimensions are about twice as large as those of a typical

brown rat The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest Muroidea, muroids, it is a brown or grey ...

(''Rattus norvegicus''), which suggests about eight times the body mass. The body mass has been estimated at , comparable to a rabbit. ''Papagomys armandvillei'' is the only extant species in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Papagomys ''Papagomys'' is a genus of very large rats in the tribe Rattini of the subfamily Murinae, with body masses of . It contains two species, which are known only from the Indonesian island of Flores: * Flores giant rat ''Papagomys armandvillei'' * ...

,'' with another smaller species, ''

Papagomys theodorverhoeveni Verhoeven's giant rat (''Papagomys theodorverhoeveni'') is an extinct rat of subfamily Murinae that lived on Flores in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indi ...

'', known from subfossil remains. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

, armandvillei, honours the Dutch Jesuit missionary Cornelis J. F. le Cocq d'Armandville (1846–1896) who was stationed in the Dutch East Indies, and later in New Guinea.

Guy Musser Guy Graham Musser (August 10, 1936 – October 2019) was an American zoologist. His main research was in the field of the rodent subfamily Murinae, in which he has described many new species. Musser was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended ...

describes the Flores giant rat as having small, round ears, a chunky body, and a small tail, and as appearing to be adapted for life on the ground with refuge in burrows. It has dense dark hair (pelage). Analysis of the teeth suggests a diet of leaves, buds, fruit, and certain kinds of insects as inferred by large

hypsodont Hypsodont is a pattern of dentition characterized by with high crowns, providing extra material for wear and tear. Some examples of animals with hypsodont dentition are cows and horses; all animals that feed on gritty, fibrous material. The oppos ...

teeth. The Flores giant rat has been suggested to have been a prey item of the extinct dwarf human species ''

Homo floresiensis ''Homo floresiensis'' , also known as "Flores Man" or "Hobbit" (after Hobbit, the fictional species), is an Extinction, extinct species of small archaic humans that inhabited the island of Flores, Indonesia, until the arrival of Homo sapiens, ...

''.

Conservation

''P. armandvillei'' is listed as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

. Threats include subsistence hunting and predation by dogs and cats.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1761067 Papagomys Rodents of Indonesia Rodents of Flores Mammals described in 1892

Conservation

See also

References