Diversity
Caviomorph rodents underwent an explosive diversification upon arrival into South America. They managed to outcompete other animals in rodent-like niches such as certain South American marsupials. Retaining a predominantly herbivorous diet, they expanded their size range to encompass a range from rat-sized echimyids to the bison-sized Phoberomys. Meanwhile ecologies included burrowing gopher-like forms such as tuco-tucos, arboreal forms such as porcupines and certain spiny rats, running forms such as maras and aquatic forms such as the capybara and nutria. Habitats range from grasslands (maras), high mountains (chinchillas and chinchilla rats), forest edges (prehensile-tailed porcupines) and dense tropical forests (pacas and acouchis).
Although many species of caviomorphs have migrated into Central America since the Great American Interchange, only a single living species, the North American Porcupine, has naturally colonized North America north of Mexico (the extinct capybara Neochoerus pinckneyi also accomplished this feat). The nutria has been introduced into North America and has proven a highly successful invasive species there.
Read more about this topic: Caviomorpha
Famous quotes containing the word diversity:
“What we have to do ... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton (b. 1947)
“The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“... city areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point ... of it.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)