Comments: | The traditional Mustelidae (including skunks) has always been a problematic group. Radinsky (1973) first proposed a relationship between the Mephitinae (sensu Simpson, 1945) and Mydaus. Morphological studies seem to provide some support for a monophyletic Mustelidae (Hunt, 1974; Wolsan, 1999; Wozencraft, 1989; Wyss and Flynn, 1993). However, Bryant et al. (1993), Ledje and Arnason (1996), and Bininda-Emonds et al. (1999) showed support for Radinsky's MephitinaeMydaus group. Dragoo and Honeycutt (1997) and Flynn et al. (2000) provided a thorough review of the relationships of these groups and followed others (Árnason and Widegren, 1986; Ledje and Árnason, 1996; Wayne et al., 1989) in the recognition of a paraphyletic traditional Mustelidae. I have chosen to follow Dragoo and Honeycutt (1997) and Flynn et al. (2000) in the separation of Mephitis, Conepatus, Spilogale and Mydaus from the remaining mustelids. But see Wolsan (1999) for support of a monophyletic Mustelidae. |