''Megalomys'' is a genus 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 na ...

in the family

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, and has m ...

, part of the tribe

Oryzomyini Oryzomyini is a tribe of rodents in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the family Cricetidae. It includes about 120 species in about thirty genera,Weksler et al., 2006, table 1 distributed from the eastern United States to the southernmost parts of S ...

. The genus contains five large rodents from various

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

islands, of which two are known to have survived into modern times, but all of which are now extinct. The last species to survive was ''M. desmarestii'' from

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

, which became extinct after the

Mount Pelée Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée ( ; french: Montagne Pelée, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Montann Pèlé, meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain") is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas departm ...

eruption in 1902.

Ancient DNA Ancient DNA (aDNA) is DNA isolated from ancient specimens. Due to degradation processes (including cross-linking, deamination and fragmentation) ancient DNA is more degraded in comparison with contemporary genetic material. Even under the bes ...

analysis places ''Megalomys'' forming a clade with '' Pennatomys,'' sister to the clade containing ''

Aegialomys ''Aegialomys'' is a genus of oryzomyini, oryzomyine rodents from the lowlands and mountains of western Peru and Ecuador, including the Galápagos Islands. The species in this genus have historically been placed in ''Oryzomys'', but according to c ...

'', '' Nesoryzomys, Melanomys'' and ''

Sigmodontomys ''Sigmodontomys'' is a genus of rodent in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It is related to ''Nectomys'' and ''Melanomys'' and used to be included in ''Nectomys''. It includes two species, ''Sigmodontomys alfari'' and the much rarer ''S ...

,'' having diverged from the mainland clade around 7 million years ago. It contains the following species: Recently extinct species: * ''

Megalomys desmarestii ''Megalomys desmarestii'', also known as the Martinique muskrat,Watts, 1990, p. 528 Desmarest's pilorie,Musser and Carleton, 2005 or the Martinique giant rice rat, is an extinct rice rat from Martinique in the Caribbean. Description It was amon ...

'' (

giant rice rat) * ''

Megalomys luciae ''Megalomys luciae'', also known as the Saint Lucia pilorie or Saint Lucia giant rice-rat, as well as several variant spellings, is an extinct rodent that lived on the island of Saint Lucia in the eastern Caribbean. It was the size of a small ...

'' (

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...

giant rice rat) Fossil species: *''

Megalomys audreyae ''Megalomys audreyae'', known as the Barbudan (?) muskrat or the Barbuda giant rice rat, is an extinct oryzomyine rodent from Barbuda in the Lesser Antilles. Described on the basis of a single mandible (lower jaw) with the first molar missing an ...

'' (

Barbuda Barbuda (), is an island located in the eastern Caribbean forming part of the sovereign state of Antigua and Barbuda. It is located north of the island of Antigua and is part of the Leeward Islands of the West Indies. The island is a popular ...

giant rice rat) *'' Megalomys curazensis'' (

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

giant rice rat) *'' Megalomys georginae'' (

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

giant rice rat)

References

Extinct species section of the Joint Science department, Claremont college
*Turvey, S.T., Brace, S. and Weksler, M
A new species of recently extinct rice rat (Megalomys) from Barbados
Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde 77(6): 404–413. {{Taxonbar, from=Q572175 Rodent genera Pleistocene first appearances Holocene extinctions Rodent extinctions since 1500 Taxa named by Édouard Louis Trouessart