Migmacastor

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Migmacastor Fossil range: late Oligocene or early Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia Suborder: Castorimorpha Family: Castoridae Subfamily: incertae sedis Genus: †Migmacastor Korth & Rybczynski, 2003 Species: †M. procumbodens
Binomial name
†Migmacastor procumbodens Korth & Rybczynski, 2003

Migmacastor is an extinct member of the beaver family, Castoridae, known from a single species, Migmacastor procumbodens. Only a single specimen has been reported, a skull from the late Oligocene or early Miocene of Nebraska (Korth & Rybczynski 2003, p. 667). Features of the incisor teeth of Migmacastor indicate that they were used to dig. Other extinct beavers including the better-known Palaeocastor were also fossorial (digging), but Korth & Rybczynski (2003), p. 674) suggested that Migmacastor may have become a burrower independently.

[edit] References

• Korth, William W. & Rybczynski, Natalia (2003), “A new, unusual castorid (Rodentia) from the earliest Miocene of Nebraska”, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23 (3): 667-675, DOI 10.1671/2371 

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