HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER SCIUROMORPHA
--> FAMILY Sciuridae
--> SUBFAMILY Xerinae
--> TRIBE Marmotini
GENUS Cynomys
Author: | Rafinesque, 1817. | Citation: | Am. Mon. Mag., 2: 43. | Type Species: | Cynomys socialis Rafinesque, 1817 (= Arctomys ludoviciana Ord, 1815). | Comments: | Tribe Cynomyini (Gromov et al., 1965), or Marmotini (McKenna and Bell, 1997). Revised by Pizzimenti (1975). Clark et al. (1971) published a key to the genus. Includes Cynomys and Leucocrossuromys as subgenera. Relationships of Cynomys to other ground squirrels are in flux. While generally regarded as monophyletic, and a sister-group to North American Spermophilus, recent evidence suggests that Cynomys may be most closely related to the subgenera Ictidomys and Xerospermophilus, making genus Spermophilus paraphyletic (Hafner, 1984:17; Harrison et al., 2003). Goodwin (1995) reviewed the biogeographic history of the genus. |
|
|
|
|