Megalomys luciae | |
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Stuffed specimen | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Cricetidae |
Genus: | †Megalomys |
Species: | †M. luciae |
Binomial name | |
Megalomys luciae (Forsyth Major, 1901) |
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Synonyms | |
Oryzomys luciae Major, 1901 |
Oryzomys luciae Major, 1901
Megalomys luciae, also known as the Santa Lucian pilorie or Santa Lucian giant rice rat, as well as several variant spellings, is an extinctrodent that lived on the island of Saint Lucia in the eastern Caribbean. It was the size of a small cat, and it had a darker belly than Megalomys desmarestii, a closely related species from Martinique, and slender claws. The last known specimen died in London Zoo in 1852, after three years of captivity. It probably became extinct in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with the last record dating from 1881. There is a specimen in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London.