Sciuridae

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

Skull of an Oriental giant squirrel. Note the classic sciuromorphous shape of the anterior zygomatic region.

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

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