''Hypogeomys'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the 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 rodents. They are n ...
s in the family
Nesomyidae
The Nesomyidae are a family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of which are native to either continental Africa or to Madagascar. Included in this family are Malagasy rodents, ...
, found in
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
. There is one extant species, the
Malagasy giant rat (''Hypogeomys antimena''), currently an
endangered species with a restricted range. There is also another species known from
subfossils from a few thousand years ago, ''
Hypogeomys australis''. ''H. antinema'' measures , making it the largest rodent in Madagascar, while ''H. australis'' seems to have been slightly larger.
[Goodman, S.M. and Rakotondravony, D. 1996]
The Holocene distribution of ''Hypogeomys'' (Rodentia: Muridae: Nesomyinae) on Madagascar.
Biogéographie de Madagascar 1996:283–293.
References
Taxa named by Alfred Grandidier
Rodent genera
Mammal genera with one living species
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