Flores giant rat

Flores giant rat Temporal range: Subrecent to Recent
Holotypes of the Flores Giant Rat (below) and Papagomys theodorverhoeveni (above), with four diagnostic characteristics marked.
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Superfamily:	Muroidea
Family:	Muridae
Subfamily:	Murinae
Genus:	Papagomys
Species:	P. armandvillei
Binomial name
Papagomys armandvillei (Jentink, 1892)

The Flores giant rat (Papagomys armandvillei) is a rodent of the family Muridae that occurs on the island of Flores in Indonesia. It is found in primary, secondary and disturbed forest over a wide range of elevations. Head and body length is 41–45 cm (16.1–17.7 in.) and tail length is 33–70 cm (13–27.5 in.), making the Flores giant rat at least twice the size of an average brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) with a 25 cm long body and 15 cm long tail. It is the only extant species in the genus Papagomys.

Guy Musser describes the rat as having small, round ears, a chunky body and a small tail, and as appearing to be adapted for life on the ground with refuge in burrows. The rat has dense dark hair (pelage). Analysis of the teeth of the Flores giant rat suggests that the rat has a diet of leaves, buds, fruit, and certain kinds of insect as inferred by large hypsodont teeth.

P. armandvillei is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List. Threats include subsistence hunting and predation by dogs and cats. A related species, P. theodorverhoeveni, is known from subfossil remains from 3,000 – 4,000 years ago. This species is presumed to be extinct, but may still exist on the island.

See also

• Island gigantism