Josephoartigasia
genus of mammals
Josephoartigasia is an extinct genus of enormous dinomyid rodent from the Early Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of Uruguay. Its closest living relative is the pacarana. Josephoartigasia is named after Uruguayan national hero José Artigas. It contains two species: J. magna, described in 1966 based on a left mandible, and J. monesi, described in 2008 based on a nearly complete skull. Both are reported from the San José Member of the Raigón Formation by the Barrancas de San Gregorio along Kiyú beach.
The skull of J. monesi measures 53 cm (1 ft 9 in), similar to a beef cow skull, equating to a full body length of 262.8 cm (8 ft 7 in)—though this is likely an overestimate—and a weight of about 480–500 kg (1,060–1,100 lb). This makes J. monesi the biggest rodent ever discovered. It was much larger than J. magna, giant hutia or the largest living rodent, the capybara, which averages 60 kg (130 lb). J. monesi also had a massive bite force of approximately 1,400 N (310 lbf) at the incisors (on par with large carnivores) and 5,000 N (1,100 lbf) at the third molar (rivaling large crocodilians). Its skull was heavily reinforced to withstand high stresses far exceeding what bite force alone could exert, so it could have been using its teeth to crack nuts, excavate large burrows, dig up roots, or defend itself against predators.
“Josephoartigasia” enters the record as genus of mammals. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Josephoartigasia, genus and mammals can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Josephoartigasia” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Josephoartigasia, genus and mammals provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q753388. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1966 and 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “Josephoartigasia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.