From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caviinae is a subfamily uniting all living members of the family Caviidae with the exception of the maras, capybaras and Kerodon. The subfamily traditionally contained the guinea pig-like forms along with the cursorially (running) adapted Kerodon. Molecular results suggest that the Caviinae as so defined would be paraphyletic and that Kerodon is more closely related to maras and capybaras than to other caviines (Rowe and Honeycutt, 2002). This led Woods and Kilpatrick (2005) to unite Kerodon and capybaras into the subfamily Hydrochoerinae within the Caviidae. These studies also suggest that Microcavia and Cavia are more closely related to one another than either is to Galea.
[edit] Genera and species
- Subfamily Caviinae
- †Neoprocavia
- †Allocavia
- †Palaeocavia
- †Neocavia
- †Dolicavia
- †Macrocavia
- †Caviops
- †Pascualia
- Galea - yellow-toothed cavies
- Microcavia - mountain cavies
- Cavia - guinea pigs
[edit] References
- Duff, A. and A. Lawson. 2004. Mammals of the World A Checklist. New Haven, Yale University Press.
- McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, 631 pp. ISBN 0-231-11013-8
- Rowe, D. L. and R. L. Honeycutt. 2002. Phylogenetic relationships, ecological correlates, and molecular evolution within the Cavioidea (Mammalia, Rodentia). Molecular Biology and Evolution, 19:263-277.
- Woods, C. A. and C. W. Kilpatrick. 2005. Infraorder Hystricognathi. Pp 1538-1600 in Mammal Species of the World A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds.). Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.
