Golden vizcacha rat

The Golden Viscacharatte ( Pipanacoctomys aureus) is a living in South America rodent species from the family of deceit rats ( Octodontidae ). It was first described scientifically in 2000.

There are medium-sized with a body length of around 17-18 centimeters representatives of deceit rats. The tail is 13 to 14.5 inches long and ends in a bushy tassel. The fur of these animals is colored golden yellow at the top, the underside is whitish.

Golden Viscacharatten are so far known only from the Salar de Pipanaco, a salt flat in the Argentine province of Catamarca. There they have obviously adapted to a very dry, lined with salt plant habitat. Otherwise, nothing is known about their way of life. With the Chalchaleros - Viscacharatte another previously unknown Trugrattenart was found by the same research team in the same year.

The Golden Viscacharatte is tetraploid as the closely related Red Viscacharatte, which means it has four sets of chromosomes instead of the existing in all other mammals two. The karyotype is 4n = 92