The largest fossil rodent
2008/01/15 by Andrés Rinderknecht, R. Ernesto Blanco · 101 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Mathematics · #Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies #Biology #Ecology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Evolutionary biology #Geography #Morphological variations and asymmetry #Rodent
paper · open access · doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1645
published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 275(1637), 923-928 (Royal Society)
openalex publication_date 2008/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract
The discovery of an exceptionally well-preserved skull permits the description of the new South American fossil species of the rodent, Josephoartigasia monesi sp. nov. (family: Dinomyidae; Rodentia: Hystricognathi: Caviomorpha). This species with estimated body mass of nearly 1000kg is the largest yet recorded. The skull sheds new light on the anatomy of the extinct giant rodents of the Dinomyidae, which are known mostly from isolated teeth and incomplete mandible remains. The fossil derives from San José Formation, Uruguay, usually assigned to the Pliocene-Pleistocene (4-2Myr ago), and the proposed palaeoenvironment where this rodent lived was characterized as an estuarine or deltaic system with forest communities.
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- The virtual brain endocast of Incamys bolivianus: insight from the neurosensory system into the adaptive radiation of South American rodents
- Unveiling the neuroanatomy of Josephoartigasia monesi and the evolution of encephalization in caviomorph rodents
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- Systematic revision of Gyriabrus (Rodentia, Caviomorpha), a large dinomyid from the Neogene of South America
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- The accuracy and precision of body mass estimation in non‐avian dinosaurs
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- The bite force of the largest fossil rodent (Hystricognathi, Caviomorpha, Dinomyidae)
- New genus of giant Dinomyidae (Rodentia: Hystricognathi: Caviomorpha) from the late Miocene of Uruguay
- History, taxonomy and palaeobiology of giant fossil rodents (Hystricognathi, Dinomyidae)
- First fossil record of a bat (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) from Uruguay (Plio-Pleistocene, South America): a giant desmodontine
- The uncertainties of the largest fossil rodent
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- Josephoartigasia [wikipedia]
- The largest among the smallest: the body mass of the giant rodent Josephoartigasia monesi. [europepmc]
- The secondary loss of gyrencephaly as an example of evolutionary phenotypical reversal. [europepmc]
- Mechanical significance of morphological variation in diprotodont incisors. [europepmc]
- Occipital condyle width (OCW) is a highly accurate predictor of body mass in therian mammals. [europepmc]
- Resizing the largest known extinct rodents (Caviomorpha: Dinomyidae, Neoepiblemidae) using occipital condyle width. [europepmc]
- Mandibular characteristics of early Glires (Mammalia) reveal mixed rodent and lagomorph morphotypes. [europepmc]
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- New perspectives on head and neck allometry and ecomorphology in tetrapods. [europepmc]
- The uncertainties of the largest fossil rodent [europepmc]
- Small within the largest: brain size and anatomy of the extinct Neoepiblema acreensis, a giant rodent from the Neotropics [europepmc]
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