Sciuridae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sciurids Fossil range: Late Eocene - Recent
Eastern Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia Family: Sciuridae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
Subfamilies
Subfamily Ratufinae Subfamily Sciurillinae Subfamily Sciurinae Tribe Sciurini Tribe Pteromyini Subfamily Callosciurinae Subfamily Xerinae Tribe Xerini Tribe Protoxerini Tribe Marmotini

The Sciurids or squirrels are a large family of rodents. It includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, the marmots (which include woodchucks), and the true flying squirrels. The African scaly-tailed flying squirrels, which belong to the family Anomaluridae, are not sciurids. Sciurids are found in all continents except Australasia and Antarctica.

[edit] Classification

The squirrel family is divided into 5 sub-families, 51 genera and 278 species.

• Family Sciuridae
  • Subfamily Ratufinae
    • Ratufa
  • Subfamily Sciurillinae
    • Sciurillus
  • Subfamily Sciurinae
    • Tribe Sciurini
      • Microsciurus
      • Rheithrosciurus
      • Sciurus
      • Syntheosciurus
      • Tamiasciurus
    • Tribe Pteromyini
      • Aeretes
      • Aeromys
      • Belomys
      • Biswamoyopterus
      • Eoglaucomys
      • Eupetaurus
      • Glaucomys
      • Hylopetes
      • Iomys
      • Petaurillus
      • Petaurista
      • Petinomys
      • Pteromys
      • Pteromyscus
      • Trogopterus
  • Subfamily Callosciurinae
    • Callosciurus
    • Dremomys
    • Exilisciurus
    • Funambulus
    • Glyphotes
    • Hyosciurus
    • Lariscus
    • Menetes
    • Nannosciurus
    • Prosciurillus
    • Rubrisciurus
    • Sundasciurus
    • Tamiops
  • Subfamily Xerinae
    • Tribe Xerini
      • Atlantoxerus
      • Spermophilopsis
      • Xerus
    • Tribe Protoxerini
      • Epixerus
      • Funisciurus
      • Heliosciurus
      • Myosciurus
      • Paraxerus
      • Protoxerus
    • Tribe Marmotini
      • Ammospermophilus
      • Cynomys
      • Marmota
      • Sciurotamias
      • Spermophilus
      • Tamias

[edit] References

• Steppan, S. J. B. L. Storz, and R. S. Hoffmann. 2004. Nuclear DNA phylogeny of the squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia) and the evolution of arboreality from c-myc and RAG1. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 30:703-719.
• Thorington, R. W. and R. S. Hoffmann. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp 754-818 in Mammal Species of the World A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• Andrew's Squirrel Encyclopaedia
• List of names of squirrel taxa