Myocastor coypus (4) Nutria Coypu Incisor Tooth Mammalia Rodentia Hystricomorpha

Coypu Incisor Tooth cm 3.8 Nutria Myocastor coypus Mammalia Rodentia Hystricomorpha, only a piece, as in photo.
Family: Echyimidae (ex Myocastoridae).
Common name: Mypotamus, Coipu, Marsh Beaver, or Water Mouse.
Syn. Mastonotus coypus, Myopotamus coypus, Potamys coypus.

The Nutria (Myocastor coypus - Molina, 1782) is a large rodent mammal native to South America, the only living species of the genus Myocastor and of the family Myocastoridae.
The skull is robust, with large incisors with bright orange enamel. Chewing teeth have a high crown and partial roots. They are progressively smaller and converging anteriorly. In all it has 20 teeth (1, incisor, 1 premolar and 3 molars for each hemiarcate), with no canines.
It is a semi-aquatic species, nocturnal and evening, visible during the day, especially during the coldest periods. It lives in swamps, lake shores, and slow-moving streams. It builds platforms of vegetation, uses other animal lairs as shelters, or digs burrow systems that range from simple tunnels to complexes of chambers and passages that span more than 15 meters.
It also tracks paths in tall grass and can go up to 180 meters from shelters. Most of his time he spends swimming or browsing aquatic plants. It can remain submerged for more than 10 minutes. In the water he pushes forward with alternating strokes of the webbed hind feet. It lives in pairs or small groups based on several related females. Males are often solitary and erratic.
It feeds mainly on plant parts, among which it prefers roots, tubers and rhizomes. In the regions where it has been introduced, it feeds on any available crops. At high population densities, it drastically reduces the presence of aquatic plants, causing the formation of open waters instead of lagoons and marshes.
In the early nineteenth century there was a demand for its fur (called "beaver fur") for commercial purposes. It therefore became quite rare in its original range. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was therefore decided to regulate indiscriminate hunting and to generate intensive breeding of this species.
Introduced and then bred in Italy for the same reasons, the specimens escaped or released by man have led to a significant increase in its diffusion in the wild, and is now practically found throughout almost the entire peninsula and major islands.
The nutria is targeted by hunters for its fur and in some regions even as a food source.
She is often blamed for damage to dams and irrigation systems and is blamed for causing flooding. It hardly strays further than 4 meters from the watercourse, but it can pose a risk to land crops when there is a shortage of aquatic plants, and it can also damage rice fields.
Some states have undertaken eradication activities in their territory, without however obtaining definitive results. It is included in the list of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world.
The Myocastoridae probably evolved in South America during the Oligocene from a branch of the Adelophomyinae, belonging to the Echimyidae family. The earliest known member of the family is Late Oligocene Prospaniomys and has essentially remained a native Patagonian group ever since. Other more recent genera, lived in the Miocene are Spaniomys, Haplostropha and Strophostephanus, up to Paramyocastor and Isomyopotamus of the late Pliocene.