A few months ago, I wrote about the rather unusual fact that we actually don’t know which species of cavy is the ancestor of the domestic guinea pig.
The Tschudi’s cavy is usually suggested as the closest relative of the domesticated cavy.
It’s a very different cavy species from the domestic animal, because its biochemistry is very different.
It has been suggested that it is a hybrid of different cavy species.
I have a slightly different view.
I think this animal is a domesticated version of a cavy species that no longer exists in the wild. It was probably similar to the Tschudi cavy, but it may be related to the Aperea cavy and the shiny cavy.
As far as I know, though, no one has performed a Robert K. Wayne study of the guinea pig’s molecular evolution. Studies have been performed on this group of rodents, but no one has looked at how the guinea pig fits within its genus. (Please prove me wrong on this one!)
cool
i actually never thought that guinea pigs were related to something else maybe other than rabbits or hamsters and that pic of the guinea pig looks kinda like my friends guinea , his name is jesse and he is from australia ! any Way good bye from nick jonas ! xox
[…] I pondered the question a few years ago, I didn’t know which species it was. I thought science had come up with only confusing and contradictory answers to this […]