Nectomys
Nectomys is a genus of rodent in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It is closely related to Amphinectomys and was formerly considered congeneric with Sigmodontomys. It consists of five species, which are allopatrically distributed across much of South America: Nectomys grandis in montane Colombia; Nectomys palmipes on Trinidad and in nearby Venezuela, Nectomys apicalis in the western margins of the Amazon biome, Nectomys rattus in much of Amazonia, and Nectomys squamipes in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. These species are generally semiaquatic, are normally found near water, and are commonly called water rats.

J. D. L. Franz Wagner · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- water ratPBDB
- Sits inside
- SigmodontinaePBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 762 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.
4 occurrences of Nectomys on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Pleistocene75%
- Holocene25%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Nectomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Nectomys and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Nectomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
199 taxa- Cuniculus paca2 sites
- Dasyprocta2 sites
- Dasypus2 sites
- Dasypus (Dasypus) novemcinctus2 sites
- Euphractus sexcinctus2 sites
- Glyptodon2 sites
- Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris2 sites
- Nasua nasua2 sites
- Oligoryzomys2 sites
- Oryzomys2 sites
- Panochthus2 sites
- Panthera onca2 sites
- Proechimys2 sites
- Puma concolor2 sites
- Tolypeutes2 sites
- Aenocyon dirus1 site
- Alouatta seniculus1 site
- Ameiva ameiva1 site
- Andinomys1 site
- Aotus trivirgatus1 site
- Arctotherium tarijense1 site
- Arctotherium wingei1 site
- Artibeus1 site
- Artibeus (Artibeus) obscurus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Nectomys, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- Fauna de mamíferos do Quaternário de Serra da Mesa (Goiás, Brasil)1
- Reassesment of the Pliocene-Pleistocene continental time scale of Southern South America. Correlation of the type Chapadmalalan with Bolivian sections1
- The Eocene to Pleistocene vertebrates of Bolivia and their stratigraphic context: a review1
- An Overview of Research at Cocha Cashu Biological Station1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Nectomys
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- J. D. L. Franz Wagner
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Nectomys squamipes pollens · UMMZ:mammals:126275
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Nectomys”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itSigmodontinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Peters 1861