Rio Grande ground squirrel
| Rio Grande ground squirrel | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Genus: | Ictidomys |
| Species: | I. parvidens
|
| Binomial name | |
| Ictidomys parvidens Mearns, 1896
| |
The Rio Grande ground squirrel (Ictidomys parvidens) is a species of squirrel in the family Sciuridae. It is found in Texas and New Mexico in the United States, and in northeastern Mexico.
All the species of Ictidomys were previously believed to belong to the much larger genus Spermophilus (I. parvidens as a subspecies of Spermophilus mexicanus),[1] but DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene showed that this group was paraphyletic to the prairie dogs and marmots,[2] and could therefore no longer be retained as a single genus. As a result, Ictidomys is now considered as a genus in its own right.[3]
References
- ^ Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ^ Herron, Matthew D.; Castoe, Todd A.; Parkinson, Christopher L. (2004). "Sciurid phylogeny and the paraphyly of Holarctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (3): 1015–30. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.09.015. PMID 15120398.
- ^ Helgen, Kristofer M.; Cole, F. Russel; Helgen, Lauren E.; Wilson, Don E (2009). "Generic Revision in the Holarctic Ground Squirrel Genus Spermophilus" (PDF). Journal of Mammalogy. 90 (2): 270–305. doi:10.1644/07-MAMM-A-309.1.
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