Heptaxodontidae Anthony, 1917

Charles A. Woods, 1993, Order Rodentia - Suborder Hystricognathi, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 771-806 : 804

Family Heptaxodontidae Anthony, 1917 . Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 37(4):183.

SYNONYMS: Amblyrhizinae, Elasmodontomyinae.

COMMENTS: Known only from sub-Recent fossils from Greater and N Lesser Antilles ( Woods, 1989a). It is debated whether Amblyrhiza and Clidomys became extinct before or after humans arrived in the West Indies. This family is often placed near the Chinchillidae based on similar laminar plates of molariform teeth. One genus ( Quemisia ) is very similar in dental morphology to capromyids, however, and it is possible to derive all of the conditions seen in heptaxodontids from dental patterns found within the Capromyidae . This family should be placed adjacent to the Capromyidae .