Hystricomorpha

The term Hystricomorpha (from Greek ὕστριξ, hystrix = "porcupine" and Greek μορφή, morphē = "form")[2] has had many definitions throughout its history. In the broadest sense, it refers to any rodent (except dipodoids) with a hystricomorphous zygomasseteric system. This includes the Hystricognathi, Ctenodactylidae, Anomaluridae, and Pedetidae. Molecular and morphological results suggest the inclusion of the Anomaluridae and Pedetidae in Hystricomorpha may be suspect. Based on Carleton & Musser 2005, these two families are treated here as representing a distinct suborder Anomaluromorpha.

Hystricomorpha
Temporal range: Eocene to recent,
Capybara
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Hystricomorpha
Brandt, 1855[1]
Superfamilies

See text

Classification
Cranium of a capybara showing the enlarged infraorbital canal present in most members of the Hystricomorpha: This condition is termed hystricomorphy.

The modern definition of Hystricomorpha, also known as Entodacrya or Ctenohystrica, is a taxonomic hypothesis uniting the gundis with the hystricognath rodents.[3] Considerable morphological and strong molecular support exists for this relationship . If true, this hypothesis renders the traditional view of Sciurognathi invalid, as it becomes a paraphyletic group.

The hystricomorph rodents, or at least members of Caviomorpha, are sometimes not regarded as rodents.[4] Most molecular and genetic research, however, confirms the monophyly of rodents.[5] Support for rodent polyphyly appears to be a product of long branch attraction.[6]

Hystricomorph rodents appeared in South America in the Eocene,[7] a continent which previously had metatherians, xenarthrans, and meridiungulates as the only resident nonflying mammals. They apparently arrived by rafting across the Atlantic from Africa. The same type of migration may have occurred with primates,[8] which also appeared in South America in the Eocene when it was an isolated continent, long before the Great American Interchange. All of this is still controversial, and new scientific discoveries on this subject are published regularly.

Families

The following list of families is based on the taxonomy of Marivaux et al. 2002 and Marivaux, Vianey-Liaud & Jaeger 2004, who subjected a number of early fossil rodents to parsimony analysis and recovered support for the Hystricomorpha or Entodacrya hypothesis. Their results rendered the suborder Sciuravida as defined by McKenna & Bell 1997 to be polyphyletic and invalid. The symbol "†" is used to indicate extinct groups.

Notes
  1. Brandt 1855
  2. "Hystricomorpha". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved November 2011. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  3. Carleton & Musser 2005
  4. Graur, Hide & Li 1991; D'Erchia et al. 1996; Reyes, Pesole & Saccone 2000
  5. Cao et al. 1994; Kuma & Miyata 1994; Sullivan & Swofford 1997; Robinson-Rechavi, Ponger & Mouchiroud 2000; Lin et al. 2002; Reyes et al. 2004
  6. Bergsten 2005
  7. Antoine, P.-O.; Marivaux, L.; Croft, D. A.; Billet, G.; Ganerod, M.; Jaramillo, C.; Martin, T.; Orliac, M. J.; et al. (2011). "Middle Eocene rodents from Peruvian Amazonia reveal the pattern and timing of caviomorph origins and biogeography". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279 (1732): 1319–1326. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1732. PMC 3282368. PMID 21993503.
  8. Bond, M.; Tejedor, M. F.; Campbell, K. E.; Chornogubsky, L.; Novo, N.; Goin, F. (2015-02-04). "Eocene primates of South America and the African origins of New World monkeys". Nature. 520: 538–41. doi:10.1038/nature14120. PMID 25652825.

References
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