mountain beavern.
/ˌmaʊntᵻn ˈbiːvə/, U.S. /ˈmaʊnt(ə)n ˌbivər/ Originally U.S.
A burrowing rodent, Aplodontia rufa, the sole member of the family Aplodontidae, which resembles a tailless muskrat and inhabits wet forests near the west coast of North America. Also called sewellel.The mountain beaver is regarded as the most primitive living rodent, and is not related to the true beaver.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > [noun] > family Aplodontidae (mountain beaver)
sewellel1806
mountain beaver1877
mountain boomer1877
boomer1890
1877 Amer. Naturalist 11 434 It [sc. the ‘Sewellel’] is also called ‘mountain beaver’, as in its appearance and burrowing habits it remotely resembles the beaver.
1885 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) V. 121 This is the..‘Sewellel’ of the aborigines..known to..trappers as the ‘Boomer’ and ‘Mountain Beaver’.
1943 V. H. Cahalane Meeting Mammals 98 ‘Boomer’, or the mountain beaver, is only a very remote relative of the real beaver.
1970 Ecol. Monogr. 40 325/2 Cover is often considerably reduced by numerous burrows of the mountain beaver, Aplodontia rufa.
1994 New Scientist 5 Mar. 12/3 The mountain beaver..may be a basal branch of the rodent lineage.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1877