- Animals
- ›Chordates
- ›Vertebrates
- ›Mammals
- ›Therians
- ›Placental Mammals
- ›Primates, Rodents, and Allies
- ›Rodents
- ›Ctenohystricans
- ›Hystricognaths
- ›Degus, Hutias, Tuco-tucos, and Allies
- ›Spiny Rats and Hutias
- ›Echimyines
- ›Terrestrial Spiny Rats and Allies
Proechimys
Proechimys is a genus of South American spiny rats of the family Echimyidae. All species of the genus are terrestrial. In the lowland Neotropical forests, Proechimys rodents are often the most abundant non-volant mammals. They are recognizable by reason of their elongated heads and long rostra, large and erect ears, narrow and long hind feet, and tails always shorter than head-and-body lengths. The dorsal pelage comprises a mixture of expanded, varyingly stiffened spines (or aristiforms) — hence the vernacular name of spiny rats — and soft hairs (or setiforms).
Proechimys is the most speciose genus of the rodent family Echimyidae, with 25 species recognized, followed by Phyllomys with 13 species, and Trinomys with 11 species.
22 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 22 known species
O'Connell's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys oconnelli
Tome's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys semispinosus
Simon's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys simonsi
Huallaga Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys brevicauda
Cuvier's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys cuvieri
Cayenne Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys guyannensis
Boyaca Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys chrysaeolus
Long-tailed Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys longicaudatus
Steere's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys steerei
Roberto's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys roberti
Napo Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys quadruplicatus
Colombian Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys canicollis
Goeldi's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys goeldii
Patton's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys pattoni
Gray-footed Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys guairae
Sucre Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys trinitatis
Gardner's Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys gardneri
Pacific Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys decumanus
Guyanan Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys hoplomyoides
Minca Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys mincae
Stiff-spine Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys echinothrix
Kulina Spiny Rat
speciesProechimys kulinae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Proechimys in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 43940.