Aurimys

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Aurimys is an extinct genus of kangaroo rats that lived in North America during the Early Miocene. Only one fossil specimen is known, from a 23-million-year-old deposit in Oregon. It includes a nearly complete skull and jaw, part of a hindfoot, and a tail bone. Aurimys xeros is the earliest and largest member of its subfamily. The skull is about 4.5 cm long (1.8 inches), roughly one-third longer than the largest living species. The shape of its foot bones suggests it walked on all fours, unlike modern kangaroo rats that hop on two legs.

Classification: Kingdom Animalia; Phylum Chordata; Class Mammalia; Order Rodentia; Family Heteromyidae; Subfamily Dipodomyinae; Genus Aurimys (Samuels, Calede, & Hunt, 2023); Species Aurimys xeros (type species).