Deinogalerix (Gargano giant gymnure or Gargano giant moonrat)

Deinogalerix, Gargano giant gymnure, terrible hedgehog (†Deinogalerix (Freudenthal, 1972))

 

Order: Eulipotyphla

Family: Erinaceidae

Dimensions: length - 60 cm, height - 25 сm, weight - 3-5 kg

Temporal range: Late Miocene of Europe (Italy, island/peninsula of Gargano)

A largest representative: Deinogalerix koenigswaldi

 

 

Deinogalerix  is an extinct genus of gymnure which lived in Italy in the Late Miocene, 7-10 million years ago. The genus is in the hedgehog subfamily of gymnures superficially rat-like relatives of the hedgehog lacking quills. The first specimens of Deinogalerix were first described in 1972.

D. koenigswaldi's skull was 21 centimetres long and the entire body measured 60 centimetres. It is believed that the species of Deinogalerix were insectivores, mostly feeding off invertebrates, but the larger species may also the same ecological niche as dogs and cats today. It shared this niche with the enormous barn owl Tyto gigantea.

 

The genus was apparently endemic to what was then the island of Gargano, which is now a peninsula. In the Late Miocene subepoch, what is at present Italy was mainly a group of small islands and only at a later date did majority of these join with the mainland. It is known that animals on these islands sometimes evolved quite differently from elsewhere. So it is possible that Deinogalerix may have lived exclusively in the Gargano