The Wallace's large spiny rat (''Halmaheramys wallacei'') is a
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 ...
found on the
Obi Islands of Bisa and Obi in the
Molucca
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
archipelago of Indonesia.
The genus '' Halmaheramys'' was originally thought to include only one species, endemic to Halmahera, giving the genus its scientific name. This new species extends the distribution to two more islands in the Maluku Archipelago.
It was first found in January 1990 by researchers T. Flannery and Boeadi, when they found a badly decomposed body of a rat on the island of Bisa. Later, in 2013, the authors collected further three specimens from Obi Island.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q50057951
Rodents of Indonesia
Halmaheramys
Mammals described in 2018