Oriental giant squirrel
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| Oriental giant squirrels Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Recent |
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| Indian Giant Squirrel Ratufa indica |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Eutheria |
| Superorder: | Euarchontoglires |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Suborder: | Sciuromorpha |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Subfamily: | Ratufinae Moore, 1959 |
| Genus: | Ratufa Gray, 1867 |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
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Eoscuirus, Rukaia |
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Oriental giant squirrels are very large[specify] tree squirrels from the genus Ratufa in the subfamily Ratufinae. They are a distinctive element of the fauna of south and southeast Asia.
There are four living species of oriental giant squirrels:
- Cream-coloured giant squirrel, Ratufa affinis
- Black giant squirrel, Ratufa bicolor
- Indian giant squirrel, Ratufa indica
- Grizzled giant squirrel, Ratufa macroura
In prehistoric times this lineage was more widespread. For example, animals very similar to Ratufa and possibly belonging to this genus - at least belonging to the Ratufinae - were part of the early Langhian (Middle Miocene, some 16-15.2 million years ago) Hambach fauna of Germany.[1]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Gee et al. (2007)
[edit] References
- Gee, Carole T.; Sander, P. Martin & Petzelberger, Bianka E.M. (2003): A Miocene rodent nut cache in coastal dunes of the Lower Rhine Embayment, Germany. Palaeontology 46(6): 1133-1149. doi:10.1046/j.0031-0239.2003.00337.x (HTML abstract)
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