Kingdom Animalia Infraorder Hystricognathi Scientific name Heptaxodontidae Higher classification Hystricognathi Order Rodent | Suborder Hystricomorpha Parvorder Caviomorpha Phylum Chordata Rank Family | |
Similar Rodent, Mammal, Dinomyidae, Hystricognathi, Thryonomyidae | ||
The giant hutias are an extinct group of large rodents known from fossil and subfossil material in the West Indies. One species, Amblyrhiza inundata, is estimated to have weighed between 50 and 200 kg (110 and 440 lb), big specimens being as large as an American black bear. This is much larger than capybara, the largest rodent living today, but still much smaller than Josephoartigasia monesi, the largest rodent known. These animals might have persisted into historic times and were probably used as a food source by aboriginal humans. All giant hutias are in a single family, Heptaxodontidae, which contains no living species; this grouping seems to be paraphyletic and artificial however.
One of the smaller species, Quemisia, might have survived as late as the days when the Spanish were beginning to conquer North America. Some of their smaller relatives from the family Capromyidae, known as hutias, survive in the Caribbean Islands.
Taxonomy
The giant hutias are divided into two subfamilies, five genera, and six species.