Dinomys

noun

Di·​no·​mys

ˈdīnōˌmis

: a genus of Peruvian hystericomorph rodents (the type of the family Dinomyidae) resembling the pacas

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from dino- dino- + -mys -mys

Note: Taxon introduced as Dinomys Branickii by the German zoologist Wilhelm Peters (1815-83) in Monatsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, aus dem Jahre 1873 (Berlin, 1874), "10. Juli [1872]. Gesamtsitzung der Akademie," pp. 551-52. Peters published a more detailed description and illustrations of the animal in the same year as "Ueber Dinomys, eine merkwürdige neue Gattung von Nagethieren aus Peru," Festschrift zur Feier des hundertjährigen Bestehens der Gesellschaft der Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin (Berlin, 1873), pp. 227-34. The specimen described by Peters, from the Museum of Zoology in Warsaw, was procured by the Polish zoologist and traveler Konstanty Jelski in Junín region, central Peru. At Jelski's request, Peters gave the animal the specific epithet Branickii after the Polish nobleman Konstanty Branicki (1824-84), who was a principal financial sponsor of Jelski's expedition to South America.

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