Overview
Distribution
Range Description
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Geographic Range
Chaetomys subspinosus live in northern and central Brazil.
Biogeographic Regions: neotropical (Native )
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Brazil
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Physical Description
Morphology
Physical Description
Chaetomys subspinosus weigh about 1300 grams and have a head to body length of 380-457mm with a tail length of 255-280mm. Color is mostly brownish, but sometimes grey. Unlike most other porcupines, Thin-spined Porcupines have hairs that resemble bristles more than spines. However, neck, head, and forelimb regions contain spinelike hairs that are less flexible compared to those on the rest of the body. The feet and tail are dark brown to black. The tail itself is long and scaly, but arguably not prehensile. The hands and feet all have 4 digits containing long, curved claws (Nowak, 1999).
Average mass: 1.300 kg.
Range length: 380 to 457 mm.
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Ecology
Habitat
Habitat and Ecology
Systems
- Terrestrial
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Habitat
Thin-spined Porcupines mostly live in the trees of dense vegetated forests and bush regions around savannas and cultivated areas.(Stahnke and Hendrichs, 1990)
Habitat Regions: tropical
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
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Trophic Strategy
Food Habits
Chaetomys subspinosus are mostly fruit and nut eaters. They generally like to live in the area of cocoa trees, where there is an ample supply of nuts (Nowak, 1999).
Primary Diet: herbivore (Frugivore , Granivore )
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Life History and Behavior
Reproduction
Reproduction
Female Thin-spined Porcupines are sexually active for one month of the year. Sexual selection of a mate is suggested to be based on the male's size and density of his quills. A female who doesn't want to mate with a certain male leaves her heavily quilled tail down so the male can not have access (Dworetzky, 1998).
Parental Investment: precocial
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Molecular Biology and Genetics
Molecular Biology
Statistics of barcoding coverage: Chaetomys subspinosus
Public Records: 0
Species: 3
Species With Barcodes: 1
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Conservation
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List Assessment
Red List Category
Red List Criteria
Version
Year Assessed
Assessor/s
Reviewer/s
Justification
History
- 1996Vulnerable(Baillie and Groombridge 1996)
- 1994Vulnerable(Groombridge 1994)
- 1990Indeterminate(IUCN 1990)
- 1988Indeterminate(IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988)
- 1986Indeterminate(IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986)
- 1982Indeterminate(Thornback and Jenkins 1982)
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Conservation Status
Chaetomys subspinosus reside only in a small area of Brazil, where its habitat is slowly being taken away by deforestation, industry, and agriculture. Numbers may be declining, but since Thin-spined Porcupines have the ability to live on forest edges, they might not be as vulnerable (Nowak, 1999).
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: vulnerable
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Status: Endangered
Date Listed: 06/02/1970
Lead Region: Foreign (Region 10)
Where Listed:
Population detail:
Population location: entire
Listing status: E
For most current information and documents related to the conservation status and management of Chaetomys subspinosus , see its USFWS Species Profile
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Trends
Population
Population Trend
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Threats
Threats
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Management
Conservation Actions
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Wikipedia
Bristle-spined Rat
The Bristle-spined Rat, Chaetomys subspinosus, is an arboreal rodent from Brazil. Also known as the Bristle-spined Porcupine or Thin-spined Porcupine, it is the only member of the genus Chaetomys and the subfamily Chaetomyinae.[2] It was officially described in 1818, but rarely sighted since, until December 1986 when two specimens - one a pregnant female - were found in the vicinity of Valencia in Bahia State.[3]
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Characteristics
Bristle-spined Rats are named because the spines on the back are more bristle-like in texture than the spines on the rest of the body. They have long naked tails which are not prehensile. Adult animals weigh around 1.3 kg (2.9 lb).
Their skulls are unusual in several ways. The eye socket is almost completely surrounded by a ring of bone. Incisors are distinctly narrow. Overall, the animal displays a mix of New World porcupine cranial characters, spiny rat cranial characters, and characters that set it apart from all other rodents.
The Bristle-spined Rat is restricted to remnant forests and forest edges in the Atlantic coastal forests on the East Coast of Brazil. Its habitat is dwindling rapidly and the species may be vulnerable to extinction. It is classified as vulnerable by IUCN and endangered by USDI (Nowak, 1999
Taxonomic controversy
No consensus has been reached as to the taxonomic position of Chaetomys. It is commonly placed with the New World porcupines in the family Erethizontidae or with the spiny rats the family Echimyidae. Both are South American hystricognaths with hairs modified as spines or quills. Chaetomys has more highly developed spines than the spiny rats, but less developed than the porcupines. Characteristics of the premolar suggest that it belongs with the Echimyidae, but characteristics of the incisor enamel suggest that it belongs in the Erethizontidae. This animal is not endangered any more.
Patterson and Pascual (1968), Patterson and Wood (1982), Woods (1982, 1984, 1993) Patton and Reig (1989), Nowak (1999), and Carvalho (2000) support the inclusion of this animal in the Echimyidae whereas Martin (1994), McKenna and Bell (1997), Carvalho and Salles (2004), and Woods and Kilpatrick (2005) argue that it belongs in the Erethizontidae. Emmons (2005) mentions the family Chaetomyidae without much further comment except to exclude it from Echimyidae.
References
- ^ Catzeflis, F., Patton, J., Percequillo, A., Bonvicino, C. & Weksler, M. (2008). Chaetomys subspinosus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 5 January 2009.
- ^ Woods, Charles A.; Kilpatrick, C. William (16 November 2005). "Infraorder Hystricognathi (pp. 1538-1600)". In Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=13400094.
- ^ Karl Shuker, Gerald Durrell, (1993). Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the Twentieth Century. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 89–90. ISBN 0-00-219943-2.
- Carvalho, 2000. Substitution of the deciduous premolar in Chaetomys subspinosus (Olfers, 1818) (Hystricognathi, Rodentia) and its taxonomic implications. Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde, 65:187-190.
- Carvalho, G. A. S. and L. O. Salles. 2004. Relationships among extant and fossil echimyids. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 142:445-477.
- Emmons, L.H. 2005. A Revision of the Genera of Arboreal Echimyidae (Rodentia: Echimyidae, Echimyinae), With Descriptions of Two New Genera. pp. 247–310 in Lacey, E.A. & Myers, P. 2005. Mammalian Diversification: From Chromosomes to Phylogeography (A Celebration of the Career of James L. Patton). University of California Publications in Zoology.
- Martin, T. 1994. On the systematic position of Chaetomys subspinosus (Rodentia: Caviomorpha) based on evidence from the incisor enamel microstructure. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 2:117-131.
- McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, 631 pp. ISBN 0-231-11013-8
- Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, London.
- Patton, J. L. and O. A. Reig. 1989. Genetic differentiation among echimyid rodents, with emphasis on spiny rats, genus Proechimys. pp. 75–96 in Neotropical Mammalogy (K. H. Redford and J. F. Eisenberg, eds.). Sandhill Crane Press, Gainesville.
- Patterson, B. and R. Pascual. 1968. New echimyid rodents from the Oligoceneof Patagonia, and a synopsis of the family. Brevioria, 301:1-14.
- Patterson, B. and A. E. Wood. 1982. Rodents from the Deseadan Oligocene of Bolivia and the relationships of the Caviomorpha. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 149:371-543.
- Woods, C. A. 1982. The history and classification of the South American hystricognath rodents: Reflections on the far away and long ago. Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology Special Publication, 6:377-392.
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Wikipedia
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