Little Swan Island hutia
Encyclopedia
The Little Swan Island Hutia (Geocapromys thoracatus) is an extinct
species of rodent that lived on the Swan Islands
, off north-eastern Honduras
in the Caribbean
. It was a slow-moving, guinea-pig-like rodent
and probably emerged from caves and limestone
crevices to forage on bark, small twigs and leaves.
It may have been a subspecies of the Jamaican Hutia (Geocapromys browni), whose ancestors were carried to the island from Jamaica
, 5000-7000 years ago. It was fairly common in the early 20th century, but disappeared after a severe hurricane in 1955, followed by the introduction of house cats to the island.
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
species of rodent that lived on the Swan Islands
Swan Islands, Honduras
The Swan Islands, or Islas Santanilla, are a chain of three islands located in the northwestern Caribbean Sea, approximately ninety miles off the coastline of Honduras, with a land area of .-Detailed location and features:...
, off north-eastern Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. It was a slow-moving, guinea-pig-like rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
and probably emerged from caves and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
crevices to forage on bark, small twigs and leaves.
It may have been a subspecies of the Jamaican Hutia (Geocapromys browni), whose ancestors were carried to the island from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, 5000-7000 years ago. It was fairly common in the early 20th century, but disappeared after a severe hurricane in 1955, followed by the introduction of house cats to the island.