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Urocitellus
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| Urocitellus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Richardson's ground squirrel in Manitoba | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Tribe: | Marmotini |
| Genus: | Urocitellus Obolenskij, 1927 |
| Type species | |
| Spermophilus eversmanni | |
| Species | |
|
See text. | |
Urocitellus is a genus of ground squirrels. They were previously believed to belong to the much larger genus Spermophilus, but DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene showed that this group was paraphyletic to the prairie dogs and marmots,[2][3] and could therefore no longer be retained as a single genus. As a result, Urocitellus is now considered as a genus in its own right.[4]
All but two species are native to the northern and western parts of North America, from California and Minnesota through the north-western United States and western Canada; the Arctic ground squirrel inhabits Arctic terrain on both sides of the Bering Strait, while the long-tailed ground squirrel is exclusively found in Asia. The name of the genus is said to be derived from the Latin uro, meaning "tail" and citellus for "ground squirrel".[4] The proper word for "tail" in classical Latin is cauda.[5] Oura (οὐρά) is the ancient Greek word for "tail".[6]
Species
[edit]Fourteen species are currently identified:
Genus Urocitellus
- Uinta ground squirrel, Urocitellus armatus
- Belding's ground squirrel, Urocitellus beldingi
- Northern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus brunneus
- Merriam's ground squirrel, Urocitellus canus
- Columbian ground squirrel, Urocitellus columbianus
- Wyoming ground squirrel, Urocitellus elegans
- Southern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus endemicus
- Piute ground squirrel, Urocitellus mollis
- Arctic ground squirrel, Urocitellus parryii
- Richardson's ground squirrel, Urocitellus richardsonii
- Snake River Plains ground squirrel, Urocitellus idahoensis[7]
- Townsend's ground squirrel, Urocitellus townsendii
- Long-tailed ground squirrel, Urocitellus undulatus
- Washington ground squirrel, Urocitellus washingtoni
References
[edit]- ^ Kryštufek, Boris; Vohralík, Vladimir (15 December 2013). "Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic rodents (Rodentia). Part 2. Sciuridae: Urocitellus, Marmota, and Sciurotamias". Lynx. 44.
- ^ Harrison, Richard G.; Bogdanowicz, Steven M.; Hoffmann, Robert S.; Yensen, Eric; Sherman, Paul W. (September 2003). "Phylogeny and evolutionary history of the ground squirrels (Rodentia: Marmotinae)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 10 (3): 249–276. doi:10.1023/B:JOMM.0000015105.96065.f0.
- ^ Herron, Matthew D.; Castoe, Todd A.; Parkinson, Christopher L. (June 2004). "Sciurid phylogeny and the paraphyly of Holarctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (3): 1015–1030. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.09.015.
- ^ a b Helgen, Kristofer M.; Cole, F. Russel; Helgen, Lauren E. & Wilson, Don E (2009). "Generic Revision in the Holarctic Ground Squirrel Genus Spermophilus". Journal of Mammalogy. 90 (2): 270–305. doi:10.1644/07-MAMM-A-309.1.
- ^ Lewis, C.T. & Short, C. (1879). A Latin dictionary founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ^ Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ^ McLean, Bryan S; Rickart, Eric A; Cook, Joseph A; Guralnick, Robert P; Burgin, Connor J; Lohr, Kristin (2025-03-25). "Integrative species delimitation reveals an Idaho-endemic ground squirrel, Urocitellus idahoensis (Merriam 1913)". Journal of Mammalogy. 106 (2): 405–429. doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyae135. ISSN 0022-2372. PMC 11933283. PMID 40144356.
