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HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER SCIUROMORPHA
--> FAMILY Gliridae
--> SUBFAMILY Leithiinae
GENUS Eliomys
| Author: | Wagner, 1840. | | Citation: | Gelehrte Anz. I. K. Bayer. Akad. Wiss., München, 8(37): 297. | | Type Species: | Eliomys melanurus Wagner, 1840. | | Comments: | See Kryštufek and Kraft (1997) for clarification of the publication date for Eliomys Wagner (1839 vs. 1840). Vocalization data reviewed by Hutterer and Peters (2001). Evolutionary patterns of dental morphology during Pliocene and Pleistocene discussed by Nadachowski and Daoud (1995). Dobson (1998) speculated that Eliomys probably reached Africa at least two times, once during the Messinian from Iberia, and later during the late Pleistocene from the eastern Mediterranean. Multiple colonizations may account for the lack of morphometric cohesion among what are presumed to be conspecific North African populations of E. munbyanus (the Tunisian population, for example). It is generally (but not universally) accepted that Dryomys is the closest living relative of Eliomys (see comments under Subfamily Leithiinae and references therein). However, phylogenetic analyses of nuclear DNA fragments and 12S rRNA sequences clearly identified Eliomys and Dryomys as sister-genera within a major evolutionary lineage that includes Myomimus and Muscardinus (Montgelard et al., 2003). |
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