Ferreira's spiny tree-rat

Ferreira's spiny tree-rat, Mesomys hispidus, is a spiny rat species from South America. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

Ferreira's spiny tree-rat
Mesomys hispidus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Echimyidae
Subfamily: Echimyinae
Tribe: Echimyini
Genus: Mesomys
Species:
M. hispidus
Binomial name
Mesomys hispidus
(Desmarest, 1817) [1]

Etymology

The etymology of the species name corresponds to the Latin word hispidus meaning bristly.[2]

Systematics
Illustration, 1876

The description of Mesomys hispidus was conducted on a specimen collected by the naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira during his travels in Amazonian Brazil, hence the species name. Initially deposited in the Museu Real d'Ajuda of Portugal, it has been brought to Paris in 1808 after the plundering of Lisbon by the armies of Napoleon. Then, in 1817, Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest described the species based on this specimen housed in the National Museum of Natural History (France) of Paris.[3]

Using ancient DNA technology, a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene has been sequenced from a small skin fragment of this holotype. DNA sequence comparisons then suggested that the specimen was originally obtained in eastern Amazonia north of the Amazon River, most likely in the Brazilian state of Amapá.[3]

References
  1. Catzeflis, F.; Patton, J.; Percequillo, A.; Weksler, M. (2016). "Mesomys hispidus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T13234A22212863. Retrieved 13 August 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Gaffiot, Félix (1934). Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français (in French). Paris: Librairie Hachette. p. 1278. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  3. Orlando, Ludovic; Mauffrey, Jean-François; Cuisin, Jacques; Patton, James L; Hänni, Catherine; Catzeflis, François (2003). "Napoleon Bonaparte and the fate of an Amazonian rat: new data on the taxonomy of Mesomys hispidus (Rodentia: Echimyidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 27 (1): 113–120. doi:10.1016/s1055-7903(02)00372-x. PMID 12679076.


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