Endemic rodents of Hispaniola: biogeography and extinction timing during the Holocene

The inner ear of caviomorph rodents: Phylogenetic implications and application to extinct West Indian taxa

“…Trouing Jean Paul), as well as capromyines as Rhizoplagiodontia lemkei (UF 73921; Trouing Jérémie #5, Haiti), Hexolobodon phenax (UF 454000; Trouing Jérémie #5), and Isolobodon portoricensis (M 86668) from Hispaniola. All these aforementioned extinct rodents from the West Indies come from Quaternary deposits (McFarlane et al 1998;Flemming and MacPhee 1999;McFarlane 1999;MacPhee et al 2000;Steadman and Takano 2013;Cooke and Crowley 2018;Viñola-López et al 2022b). Finally, we also included the extinct neoepiblemid chinchilloid, Neoepiblema acreensis, a giant taxon from the Late Miocene of mainland South America (UFAC 4515; Niterói, Acre River, Solimões Formation, Brazil; Late Miocene; Kerber et al 2019).…”

“…Nowadays, only two surviving threatened groups survive in the region: the solenodons (Solenodontidae, Eulipotyphla) and hutias (Capromyinae, Echimyidae, Octodontoidea, Caviomorpha, Rodentia). Extinct lineages of Antillean mammals are numerous, and include megalocnid sloths (e.g., MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent 1994; Delsuc et al 2019;Presslee et al 2019;Viñola-López et al 2022a), platyrrhine primates (e.g., Ford 1990;MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent 1994;Horovitz and MacPhee 1999;MacPhee and Horovitz 2004;Cooke et al 2011;Rosenberger 2011Rosenberger , 2013, eulipotyphlan insectivores (Nesophontidae and several Solenodontidae; e.g., Silva et al 2007;Morgan et al 2019;Buckley et al 2020), echimyid rodents (Heteropsomyinae and most Capromyinae; e.g., Anthony 1916;Miller 1916;Woods et al 2001;MacPhee 2009;Viñola-López et al 2022b), as well as the giant rodents that are one of the topic of this paper, and traditionally grouped as members of the paraphyletic family Heptaxodontidae (for a summary, see MacPhee 2011). Except for Capromyinae and Solenodontidae, most of these West Indian mammal lineages were recently extirpated (Morgan and Woods 1986;MacPhee 2009;Turvey et al 2017;Orihuela et al 2020;Viñola-López et al 2022b).…”

“…Extinct lineages of Antillean mammals are numerous, and include megalocnid sloths (e.g., MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent 1994; Delsuc et al 2019;Presslee et al 2019;Viñola-López et al 2022a), platyrrhine primates (e.g., Ford 1990;MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent 1994;Horovitz and MacPhee 1999;MacPhee and Horovitz 2004;Cooke et al 2011;Rosenberger 2011Rosenberger , 2013, eulipotyphlan insectivores (Nesophontidae and several Solenodontidae; e.g., Silva et al 2007;Morgan et al 2019;Buckley et al 2020), echimyid rodents (Heteropsomyinae and most Capromyinae; e.g., Anthony 1916;Miller 1916;Woods et al 2001;MacPhee 2009;Viñola-López et al 2022b), as well as the giant rodents that are one of the topic of this paper, and traditionally grouped as members of the paraphyletic family Heptaxodontidae (for a summary, see MacPhee 2011). Except for Capromyinae and Solenodontidae, most of these West Indian mammal lineages were recently extirpated (Morgan and Woods 1986;MacPhee 2009;Turvey et al 2017;Orihuela et al 2020;Viñola-López et al 2022b). For various reasons, both the extant and the subfossil taxa composing these groups have proven to be difficult to classify, although this is changing with the increasing utilization of modern and ancient genomics and proteomics in phylogeny construction (e.g., Fabre et al 2014;Woods et al 2018Woods et al , 2021Courcelle et al 2019;Delsuc et al 2019;Presslee et al 2019).…”