''Neochoerus pinckneyi'' was a North American

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 ...

of capybara. While capybaras originated in

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 ...

, formation of the Isthmus of Panama three million years ago allowed some of them to migrate north as part of the Great American Interchange. Capybaras and porcupines are the only caviomorph rodents that reached temperate North America during this exchange (a much greater diversity of North American rodents invaded South America). At , 40% larger than the living capybara, ''N. pinckneyi'' is one of the largest

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 ...

ever discovered, surpassed only by '' Josephoartigasia monesi'', several species of '' Phoberomys'', and possibly the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological 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 finally confirmed in ...

giant beaver.Pleistocene Fauna of South Texas
/ref> Remains have been found in southern North America, from Arizona to Florida to South Carolina, and throughout

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

References

External links

FaunMap query for ''Neochoerus pinckneyi''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q13479292 Cavies Pleistocene rodents Prehistoric mammals of North America