The Tenerife giant rat (''Canariomys bravoi'') is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
species of rodent endemic to the island of
Tenerife
Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...
, the largest of the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. Many remains have been found during archeological digs. Most remains are from the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
.
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
has placed some of the finds in the late Pleistocene.
[.]
Discovery
![Canariomys bravoi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Canariomys_bravoi.jpg)
Fossilized remains of this animal have been found practically in every part of the island, but especially in deposits in caves or volcanic pipes of the island, where it often appears together with remains of other species such as the giant lizards (''
Gallotia goliath
''Gallotia goliath'' (the Tenerife giant lizard or goliath Tenerife lizard) is an extinct giant lizard species from the island of Tenerife of the Canary Islands, Spain. This reptile lived before the arrival of humans and is believed to have g ...
''). In particular, its bony remains have been discovered in large amounts in the deposit of
Buenavista del Norte
Buenavista del Norte is a municipality and town on the north west coast of Tenerife, located on route TF42, about 75 km west of the capital Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 65 km from Tenerife North Airport and 66 km from Tenerife South Air ...
(in the northwest of Tenerife).
Their fossils date back to the Pleistocene epoch. The first fossils were found by the naturalist
Telesforo Bravo Telesforo or Telésforo is a masculine given name derived from Telesphorus. It may refer to:
* Telesforo Castillejos (born 1947), Filipino politician and former provincial governor
* Telésforo Isaac (born 1929), retired Episcopal bishop in the Dom ...
, from whom the name of the rodent is derived. Biologists
Crusafont-Pairó and
Petter first described the giant rat in 1964.
The giant rat, along with some other endemic species of the islands, became extinct due to the activities of the initial human colonists, the
Guanches
The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa.
It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only nativ ...
, who arrived around 1000 BC, including their introduction of
feral cat
A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...
s.
Today, the
Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre Museo may refer to:
* Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film
*Museo (Naples Metro)
Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. ...
in
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...
exhibits fossil skulls and bones of this animal, as well as faithful reconstructions. Another giant rat of the Canary Islands was ''
Canariomys tamarani''.
Description
![Canariomys bravoi fossils](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Canariomys_bravoi_fossils.JPG)
This species was a big rat of about or more.
It had a cranium that reached up to seven centimetres in length. Including the tail, the rat was over , making it the largest of its family (at least in the Canaries).
A scientific study published in 2012 compared the ''Canariomys bravoi'' species to present-day arboreal rodents such as ''
Phloeomys cumingi
The southern giant slender-tailed cloud rat or southern Luzon giant cloud rat (''Phloeomys cumingi''), also known as ''bugkon'' in Filipino, is a vulnerable species of rodent in the family Muridae, found only in southern Luzon in the Philippin ...
'', the giant rat of the island of
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
[Body shape and life style of the extinct rodent Canariomys bravoi (Mammalia, Murinae) from Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain)]
/ref> The study revealed that among the distinctive features of ''C. bravoi'' are claws that develop almost similarly in the anterior and posterior limbs. Also the hind legs longer than the front ones evoke an intermediate form between rats and arboreal murals like ''Phloeomys''. ''Canariomys bravoi'' was a strong and powerfully muscled rodent able to move on different substrates from the ground to the trees, and probably had digging skills.[
]
See also
* List of African animals extinct in the Holocene
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* List of extinct animals of Europe
This list of European animals extinct in the Holocene features animals known to have become extinct in the last 12,000 years on the European continent and its surrounding islands.
Dependent territories of European countries in other continents, l ...
* Island gigantism
Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "i ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2700527
Mammals of the Canary Islands
Canariomys
Pleistocene rodents
Prehistoric murids
Extinct mammals of Africa
Holocene extinctions
Mammals described in 1964