Comments: | Flying squirrels are considered a monophyletic group (Thorington 1984) contrary to Black (1963) and Hight et al. (1974). Paleontological evidence (Mein, 1970; Bruijn and Uenay, 1989) has suggested they are not members of the Sciuridae, but molecular studies by Mercer and Roth (2003) and by Steppan et al. (2004) strongly support the view that they are the sister group of the Sciurini. Both morphological studies (Thorington et al., 2002) and molecular studies (Mercer and Roth, 2003) support division into two subtribes. Bibliographies by Lin et al. (1985) and Robins (1998). |