This spiny rat occurs in forests of the Guiana Shield. Its back is gray-brown to reddish brown, with a paler underside, long whiskers and a tuft at the end of the tail. Known collection localities are limited.
The back is described as gray-brown to reddish brown and the underside as gray-beige. The account also notes long whiskers, hairs along the ear edge and a tuft at the tail tip.
In French Guiana, specimens were collected by hand in trees by day during flooding in lowland forest beside the Sinnamary River. In Guyana, an individual was caught in a vine trap in non-flooded hill forest. These are collection records, not a complete account of daily activity.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.