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The best evidence we have suggests that, while Caviomorpha originated in South America, they came from ancestors in Africa, over 40 million years ago. So how did they get there?
This episode was written by Genevieve Perdue.
Thanks to Ceri Thomas for the Josephoartigasia monesi reconstruction. Check out more of Ceri’s paleoart at and
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References:
Lavocat, R. “La syste´matique des rongeurs hystricomorphes et la de´rive des continents.” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences Series D 269 (1969).
Merali, Z., and B.J. Skinner. Visualizing Earth Science (2009). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mones, A., and J. Ojasti. “Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris.” Mammalian Species 264(1986).
Morrison, M.L., Marcot, B.G., and R.W. Mannan. Wildlife-Habitat Relationships: Concepts and Applications, 3rd ed. (2006). Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Nowak, R. M. Walker’s mammals of the world, 5th ed. (1991). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Patton, J. L., Pardiñas, U. F. J., and G. D’Elía. Mammals of South America, Vol. 2, Rodents (2015). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Scotese, C.R. “A Continental Drift Flipbook.” The Journal of Geology 112.6 (2004).
Simpson, G.G. 1940. “Mammals and land bridges.” Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 30 (1940).
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Thank you
Why even bother looking at possibly misleading physical traits, and not just compare the DNA instead?
Capybaras can be seen even in some parks in Brazil,It's fun when they chase dogs away.
This sounds like a good movie idea,I'd call it "rodents at sea"
I believe the question was when?
So… Fivel Goes West
🐀 funny that's how the Spaniards arrived in the Americas
Imagine rats arguing about who was the explorer rat that discovered America and called all the animals their indians.
Guinea pigs are so delicious
First question I always ask my self when I watch a video about animals
Can I have it?
Sadly the answer is almost always no.
So that’s how my guinea pig got here in North America all the way from South America
Take that Vikings
Guinea Piggies were seafarers!
Kudos for using the metric system despite being American!
Owners of caviomorph pets might suggest that a small flaw in the theory of crossing oceans by an 8 day journey on a raft of sticks is the implausibility of such a raft not to be nibbled down into matchwood within 2 days. Source: the fate of every stick that has ever been exposed to my degus or chinchilla.
Guinea Big
Something like this would have been a major genetic bottleneck though, wouldn't it?
I ate a guinea-pig in Cusco, Peru…but besides that, the floating theory seems a nice convenient one. However, I wonder why Australia, so close to the Asian continent and numerous island hop possibilities in between also with many rodent and indeed other species, that they didn't float the far shorter distance from Asia to Oz, than between Africa and South America. Why did Australia, closer to Asia for millions of years not have more diverse species, in fact it was the opposite as it remained very isolated. This makes me wonder about the veracity of the floating theory. Btw, I'm not talking about Australia getting floating animals at the same time. I know it was too far away and near where Antarctica is now, I mean of course in the more recent 20 million years and later.
Rodents crossing the ocean no problem, millions of years later people crossing the ocean, big problem???? It would take a lot of them to cross to make a viable population. Island hopping makes no sense, that means odds against that happening repeatedly from island to lsland are even slimmer.
South America go all the cute animals whereas Mexico got all the deadly ones
They clearly hitched a ride on dinosaur boats
INCREDIBLE the invasive species Asians we see today has arrived by the same or similar means of that of THE SAME or similar life forms.
“What about the R.O.U.S.’s?”
“Rodents of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.”
😱😱😱
Rodents on a naturally made raft when they see South America
Rodents: Well shiver me timbers lads we have a new land to colonise
Stowaways that reshaped evolution…
First I was imagining the horror of a horse sized roden. Then I remembered the horror of a horse. Roden have nothing on those!
Rats
"Life, life finds a way"
The tattoos and big earlobes are getting to be a bit much.
Mega floods
Columbus "I am the first!" Rodent "Hold my bear"
Added trivia: "Walvis" is Dutch for 'whale' so that ridge is called Whale Ridge
It's called ANG-i-ya
Sounds like a weak theory. To float across the sea and find other species of your type in such a large space seems unlikely.
I have seen snakes and lizards in big masses of branches and algae many miles away from the costarrican Caribbean coast
When I see one of these big rodents, all I think of is "Prey".
Artic not Antarctica sorry caught that. Still live you guys
Based on an Italian scientific study from 1996, they're not actually rodents. Just because they have two teeth at top and bottom doesn't mean that they're related to the rodentia family of rats and mice. Those simple teeth were an early mammalian trait and they have a distinct disparity before these kinds of guys evolved directly into megafauna. Whereas rodents is a term more applicable to animals directly related to rats. Cavia family also have only three toes on their back feet. Behavioural differences between these guys and rats is very evident also.
They floated on rafts? No way. They clearly must have been carried by swallows. Since they originated in Africa, they had to have been carried by African swallows rather than European swallows.
absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. also i cant see any rodent rafting across no ocean. maybe on an antediluvian ship they did
Dont buy this
These young rodent kids today have no get up and go.
Human beings living 40 million years ago, Brought them by boat, Or they were stowaways on those boats. And thats how they got to south america. Theres no way these rodents made a trip on floating plant debri across the ocean. They would have died from starvation as well as dehydration way before they even made it half way.
Wonder how the capybaras taste
They arrived on atlantian ships just like modern rodents
Not buying it sorry I believe in the Pangaea theory