''Telicomys'' is an extinct genus of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), 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 roden ...

from the

Solimões Formation The Pebas Formation is a lithostratigraphic unit of Miocene age, found in western Amazonia. The formation extends over , including parts of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.Wesselingh et al., 2006 It is interpreted as representing the deposits ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

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 souther ...

Description

This rodent weighed approximately . With a length of more than in ''T. gigantissimus'', it contains two or three of the largest rodents that ever lived, along with ''

Phoberomys ''Phoberomys'' is an extinct genus of rodents. Fossil specimens from the Late Miocene period have been discovered in the Ituzaingó Formation of Argentina, the Solimões Formation of Brazil, the Urumaco Formation at Urumaco in Venezuela, and ...

'', ''

Josephoartigasia ''Josephoartigasia'' is an extinct genus of enormous dinomyid rodent from the Early Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of Uruguay. The only living member of Dinomyidae is the pacarana. ''Josephoartigasia'' is named after Uruguayan national hero Jos� ...

'', and the giant beaver. It is part of the same South American radiation of rodents as both ''Phoberomys'' and the modern

capybara The capybaraAlso called capivara (in Brazil), capiguara (in Bolivia), chigüire, chigüiro, or fercho (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru). or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydro ...

, which is the largest living rodent, reaching lengths of up to . The closest living relative to ''Telicomys'' is the

pacarana The pacarana (''Dinomys branickii'') is a rare and slow-moving hystricognath rodent indigenous to South America. Native Tupi people call it the ''pacarana'' (false paca) because it is superficially similar to the paca, a different rodent which is ...

. Its name derives from Greek τηλικος + μυς = "a mouse rodentof such a size".

References

Prehistoric pacaranas Miocene rodents Prehistoric rodent genera Miocene genera Miocene mammals of South America Huayquerian Chasicoan Mayoan Miocene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 1926 {{paleo-rodent-stub