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

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

from

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 sout ...

. It is found in

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 ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

, Guyana and Suriname. The etymology of the species name derives from the two

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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