The white-faced spiny tree-rat (''Echimys chrysurus'') is a spiny rat

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

from

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. It is found in

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French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

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and

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. The etymology of the species name derives from the two

ancient greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words (), ''gold'', and (), ''animal tail''. The main diagnostic character state of this '' Echimys'' species is the presence of a dorsal white median stripe on the head. As compared to '' Echimys vieirai'' and '' Echimys saturnus'', ''E. chrysurus'' also possesses a brighter dorsum.

References

Echimys Mammals described in 1780 Taxa named by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann {{Echimyidae-stub