''Megaoryzomys curioi'', also known as the Galápagos giant rat, is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of sigmodontine

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

, known only from

Santa Cruz Island Santa Cruz Island (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Isla Santa Cruz'', Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Limuw'') is located off the southwestern coast of Ventura, California, United States. It is the largest island in California and largest of the ei ...

in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

. It likely met its demise when European settlers introduced invasive species to the island. It is the only species in the genus ''Megaoryzomys''. Its relationships have historically been unclear; it has been placed in both

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 ...

and Thomasomyini in the past. A 2020 study favoured placing it in the former on overall skull morphology.

References

* Sigmodontinae Mammals described in 1979 Endemic fauna of the Galápagos Islands Monotypic rodent genera {{Sigmodontinae-stub