My son's assignment -- collect 30 facts about a South American animal. The facts can't be obvious ones like "it has fur". And certain facts (like scientific classification) can only be broken into four facts (so you can't use all of Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species as 7 facts). The animal he was assigned: The Monster Rice Rat.:huh::huh: I really want to go back to the teacher and ask if she's ever looked for information on the monster rice rat. The wikipedia page is two sentences. The conservation page is another couple of sentences and its scientific classification. And those two pages are all that comes up. Technically, nothing even says what it eats. And I'm really not sure this is a fair assignment when other students are getting animals like, "jaguar". Sorry, just griping.
Yeah. Not much on it. Chances are, the teacher randomly selected some animals. Just politely say something.
Eek... Found a few more facts for you: Namings for the monster rice rat A young / baby of a monster rice rat is called a 'kitten, nestling, pinkie or pup'. The females are called 'doe'. The males are called 'buck'. A monster rice rat group is called a 'colony, horde, pack, plague or swarm'.
Haha, a challenge! These may not all be helpful, and some are a little redundant, but this is all I could find. Depending on your son's grade level, these may be okay. A young / baby of a monster rice rat is called a 'kitten, nestling, pinkie or pup'. The females are called 'doe' The males are called 'buck'. A monster rice rat group is called a 'colony, horde, pack, plague or swarm'. Found only in Rio Jordas, Brazil Adult weighs 60.5 g Dorsal (back) color is ochracieous buff White venter (underbelly) is sharply demarcated from the sides Bases of the hairs are slate Upper surface of the forefeet is white Upper surface of the hind feet is buff The bicolored tail has short, fine hairs also known as the Buffy-sided Oryzomys also known as Euryoryzomys lamia The species authority, or the name(s) of scientist(s) or person(s) who first described Oryzomys lamia is Thomas, 1901 They live in a terrestrial biome This species is listed as Endangered It has suffered serious population decline, estimated to be more than 50% over the last 10 years This rodent is known from only three localities: Rio Jordan, Chapada dos Veiadeiros National Park, and Anapolis Of the three locations where it has been recorded, two have been completed destroyed due to agricultural expansion. This species is limited to remaining Cerrado habitat formations in Minas Gerais and Goiás states, central Brazil It is a habitat specialist It occurs only in enclaves of forest in the cerrado (not gallery forests). The major threats are habitat destruction and fragmentation for conversion to agriculture, livestock and logging. This species occurs in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park Until 2006, it was included in the genus Oryzomys, but is not closely related to the type species of that genus, and therefore was placed in a new genus (euryoryzomys) With scientific classifications...30! I would also say something to the teacher, even if you and your son decide to complete the assignment on the Monster Rice Rat. I wouldn't say it isn't fair, but would alert her to the difficulty of finding enough information on such an obscure animal.
Doubt that I could come up with 30 facts on the Dallas Cowboys ... much less on a Monster Rice Rat ..:lol::lol:
If this is a project they have just started has your son asked to switch? I know when I taught science I sometimes ran into this with research projects. Students would pick a topic (say if we were researching genetic disorders, a really rare one) and would have a hard time finding the required information. I almost always let them switch topics if we were still in the research phase.
3Sons, I'm sorry the assignment has occasioned you and your family grief... but it's been fun tracking this thing down. Oryzomys is cobbled together from the Greek for 'rice' (as in the Italian orzo 'rice-shaped pasta', one presumes) and 'rat' or 'mouse'; one infers that Oryzomys in general and our friend Euryoryzomys lamia in particular eat wild grasses, though some Oryzomys will apparently eat pretty much whatever comes in range. The lamia in the name has me a bit puzzled - it doesn't honor the discoverer, whose last name was Thomas - but from the fact that the Lamia in Greek mythology devoured her children, I'll venture that a Euryoryzomys lamia mom was found eating her young.
I would consider it a compliment to your son, and perhaps good differentiation. The teacher may have given animals like the "jaguar" to the struggling students, all the while giving your son a challenge to improve his research skills. Lots of facts here: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/15602/0
And here I was going to go with my older son's suggestion: The Monster Rice Rat doesn't always drink beer, but when it does, it prefers Dos Equis. Thanks everyone!
I have not been around this site in a while (just busy...) and I have to say this was a great thread to wake up to. LOL. What grade was this for?
I worry about the kid who doesn't have a parent like the OP, who is able and willing to help with such an assignment.
Fifth grade. And I think the animal was assigned kind of randomly, because he was at music and came back and that was the last one left.
How awesome that everyone has pulled together to help you out! Now, if you ever need to know about pandas, I got your back! On a side note, I bet the teacher did just create this list randomly, and I would definitely drop her a quick note explaining the difficulties in case it was not intended as differentiation. She probably doesn't know and will appreciate the information for future years.
