The plains vizcacha

Abstract

The South American plains vizcacha (Lagostomus maximus Desmarest, 1817) isa caviomorph fossorial rodent that inhabits the Southern area of the Neotropicalregion, mainly distributed in Argentina, from the North of Patagonia throughoutthe Pampean region and reaching the South of Bolivia and Paraguay (Jacksonet al. 1996). The species (Figure 18.1) belongs to the family Chinchillidae, one ofthe more recently evolved from the Hystricomorpha clade, that radiated 21.3myago (Voloch et al. 2013, Steppan and Schenk 2017).Chinchillidae comprises three living species: the chinchilla (Chinchillalanigera), the mountain vizcacha (Lagidium viscascia), and the plains vizcacha(L. maximus). Three subspecies of L. maximus are recognized according totheir geographical distribution and morphological characteristics: L. m. petilidensHollister, 1914, distributed in southern Buenos Aires, La Pampa, and Río Negroprovinces in Argentina, L. m. maximus Desmarest, 1817, in Central Argentina andL. m. immollis Thomas, 1910, ranging from Northern Argentina to Paraguay and Bolivia