Scapteromys
Temporal range: Late Pliocene to Recent
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Sigmodontinae
Tribe: Akodontini
Genus: Scapteromys
Waterhouse, 1837
Type species
Mus tumidus
Waterhouse, 1837
Species

Scapteromys aquaticus
Scapteromys meridionalis
Scapteromys tumidus

Scapteromys is a genus of South American rodents in the tribe Akodontini of family Cricetidae. Three species are known, found in northern Argentina, southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. They are as follows:

Species are semiaquatic, living in and near marshes and other bodies of water. They reach a body length of 15 to 20 cm and a tail length of 13–17 cm, and weigh 110-200 g. Fur color is dark gray on top and light gray on the underside. They are primarily crepuscular and nocturnal. Their diet consists mainly of insects; they also consume other invertebrates and plant material.

The three species differ in karyotype, with aquaticus having 2n = 32, tumidus 2n = 24 and meridionalis 2n = 34/36.


This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Scapteromys, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.