Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Aug 2, 2026

Hyperplagiodontia

Hyperplagiodontia, rarely called the wide-toothed hutia, is an extinct genus of hutia which contains a single species, Hyperplagiodontia araeum. The species was originally described as a member of the genus Plagiodontia along with the extant Hispaniolan hutia, but after morphometric analysis in 2012, was moved to its own genus, Hyperplagiodontia. Fossils of H. araeum have only been found on Hispaniola, in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Last revised
Aug 2, 2026
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≈ 1 min
Length
249 w
Citations
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Source
Hyperplagiodontia
Temporal range: Early Holocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Placentalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Echimyidae
Subfamily: Capromyinae
Tribe: Plagiodontini
Genus: Hyperplagiodontia
Rimoli, 1977
Species:
H. araeum
Binomial name
Hyperplagiodontia araeum
(Ray, 1964)
Synonyms1
  • Plagiodontia araeum
  • Hyperplagiodontia stenocoronalis (Rímoli, 1976 [1977])

Hyperplagiodontia, rarely called the wide-toothed hutia, is an extinct genus of hutia which contains a single species, Hyperplagiodontia araeum.2 The species was originally described as a member of the genus Plagiodontia along with the extant Hispaniolan hutia (P. aedium), but after morphometric analysis in 2012, was moved to its own genus, Hyperplagiodontia.34 Fossils of H. araeum have only been found on Hispaniola, in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

References

References

  1. Borroto-Páez, Rafael; Woods, Charles Arthur; Sergile, Florence Etienne (2012). "Updated checklist of endemic terrestrial mammals of the West Indies". Terrestrial Mammals of the West Indies: Contributions. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. ISBN 978-0965386470.
  2. "Catalogue of Life".
  3. Hansford, J., Nuñez-Miño, J. M., Young, R. P., Brace, S., Brocca, J. L., & Turvey, S. T. (2012). Taxonomy-testing and the ‘Goldilocks Hypothesis': morphometric analysis of species diversity in living and extinct Hispaniolan hutias. Systematics and Biodiversity, 10(4), 491-507.|Fabre, P.-H., Upham, N. S., Emmons, L. H., Justy, F., Leite, Y. L. R., Loss, A. C., Orlando, L., Tilak, M.-K., Patterson, B. D., and Douzery, E. J. P. (2017). Mitogenomic Phylogeny, Diversification, and Biogeography of South American Spiny Rats. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 34 (3): 613–633.
  4. "Hyperplagiodontia araeum". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. 1.5. American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved 23 September 2021.