Spix's Yellow-toothed Cavy

Open encyclopedia reference

Spix's yellow-toothed cavy (Galea spixii) is a rodent, a cavy species from South America. It is found in Bolivia east of the Andes and much of south central to northeastern Brazil. The species is found in open savanna and semiarid habitats, such as the Cerrado and Caatinga of Brazil. Its karyotype is 2n = 64 and FN = 118. Galea spixii and G. musteloides are similar and may actually be the same species. G. spixii tolerates a wide range of environmental changes, though they need open habitats. It is the most stable species within the Galea group because it is extremely abundant throughout its range. Gestation is about fifty days. Litter size ranges from one to five, with an average of three. They have hair and open eyes at birth. Maturation of the two sexes takes differently long: female G. spixii have an open vagina when they are approximately eighty days old while the testicular descent is completed in male G. spixii at around one hundred thirty-five days old.

Wikipedia contributors, Spix's yellow-toothed cavy; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:27:46.728544+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Galea spixii (Wagler, 1831)

Name authority

(Wagler, 1831)

Common name

Spix's Yellow-toothed Cavy

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Caviidae

Genus

Galea

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
12. suborderHystricomorpha Brandt, 1855
13. infraorderHystricognathi Brandt, 1855
14. familyCaviidae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
15. subfamilyCaviinae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
16. genusGalea Meyen, 1832
17. speciesGalea spixii (Wagler, 1831)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Galea. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 17 records assigned to Caviidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=584717 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3F38D. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.