New species of rat discovered

Researchers from Ecuador and Argentina described a new species of crab rat that lives in a river in the province of Azuay reported on National Biodiversity Institute (INABIO).

It is a rodent of the genus Ichthyomys that It feeds on crabs and that was located in the lion river, says a statement from INABIO that carried out the study together with Ecuadorians University of Azuay, and the San Francisco University of Quito, in addition to the Argentine Institute of Diversity and Southern Evolution (IDEAus-CONICET).

The authors baptized the new species as Ichthyomys pinei and discovered that it is distinguished from the Ecuadorian rodents of the Ichthyomys family, the genetically closest species to it, by its smaller size, two-colored tail and wide hind leg.

The two adult specimens collected also presented other differentiating features in the skull and teeth.

Researchers Javier Fernández de Córdova, Carlos Nivelo-Villavicencio, Carolina Reyes-Puig, Ulyses Pardiñas and Jorge Brito, located the habitat of the new species found in the western Andes mountain range, in southern Ecuador.

They indicated that it is similar to Ichthyomys stolzmanni, which also has a bicolor tail, although it is larger.

The new species raises the number of Ecuadorian Ichthyomys a four, which converts to Ecuador in the country with greater diversity of this type of rodents with four genera and eight species.

Known as rats that eat crabs, that type includes five genera and 18 species, mainly concentrated in the highlands of tropical Central America and northern South America.

The researchers warned that the location of the find, as well as several other parts of the Leon River where the animal lives, are included in mining projects, so that the development of extractive activity could have negative impacts in the population

Especially in light of the fact that the deforestation and water contamination They could be critical for the survival of the species.