Hubbry Logo
search
search button
Sign in
Historyarrow-down
starMorearrow-down
Hubbry Logo
search
search button
Sign in
Geocapromys
Community hub for the Wikipedia article
logoWikipedian hub
Welcome to the community hub built on top of the Geocapromys Wikipedia article. Here, you can discuss, collect, and organize anything related to Geocapromys. The purpose of the hub is to connect people, foster deeper knowledge, and help improve the root Wikipedia article.
Add your contribution
Inside this hub
Geocapromys

Geocapromys
Temporal range: Pleistocene to Recent
Mounted specimen of Geocapromys brownii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Echimyidae
Subfamily: Capromyinae
Tribe: Capromyini
Genus: Geocapromys
Chapman, 1901
Type species
Capromys (Geocapromys) brownii
Species

G. brownii
G. ingrahami
G. caymanensis
G. columbianus
G. thoracatus

Extant species of Geocapromys

Red: extant range of Geocapromys ingrahami , Light red: possibly extant range of Geocapromys ingrahami , Green: extant range of Geocapromys brownii , Light green: possibly extant range of Geocapromys brownii

Geocapromys is a genus of rodent belonging to the hutia subfamily[1] and are currently only found on the Bahamas and Jamaica.[2] However, they formerly ranged throughout the Caribbean, from Cuba to the Cayman Islands to even islands off mainland Central America.

Systematics

[edit]

The genus Geocapromys comprises five recent species, three of which are extinct.[3]

  • G. brownii, the Jamaican hutia, which is also known as the Jamaican coney or Brown's hutia, is another extant species endemic to Jamaica.
  • Geocapromys ingrahami, the Bahamian hutia or Ingraham's hutia, is an extant species of hutia native to the Bahamas.
  • G. thoracatus, the Little Swan Island hutia, was a third species which was found only on Little Swan Island, off northeastern Honduras. It became extinct in 1955, wiped out by storms and introduced predators. Some scientists consider it a subspecies of G. brownii.
  • G. columbianus, the Cuban coney, was endemic to Cuba, where it went extinct shortly after human colonization.
  • G. caymanensis, the Cayman hutia, was endemic to the Cayman Islands, where it went extinct shortly after human colonization.

In addition, there are two species, G. megas and G. pleistocenicus, which are known only from fossil remains.

Phylogeny

[edit]

Within Capromyidae, Geocapromys is the sister group to a clade comprising Mesocapromys and Mysateles on the one hand, and Capromys on the other hand. In turn, these four genera belong to the tribe Capromyini, and are the sister group to Plagiodontia.

Genus-level cladogram of the Capromyidae
with their relationship to Carterodon and Euryzygomatomyinae.
  Octodontoidea  
Euryzygomatomyinae
         

  Trinomys (Atlantic spiny rats)

         

  Clyomys

  Euryzygomatomys (guiaras)

  Carterodon (Owl's spiny rat)

Capromyidae
  Plagiodontini  

  Plagiodontia

  Capromyini  

  Geocapromys

         
         

  Capromys (Desmarest's hutia)

         

  Mesocapromys

  Mysateles

The cladogram has been reconstructed from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA characters.[4][5][6][2][7][8]

References

[edit]
Add your contribution
Related Hubs