Talk:Zapodinae
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[edit] Zapodidae or Zapodinae?
I've seen two different spellings of this family, which is right or are they different families? I believe Zapodidae is right. Jack 12:59, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
- Zapodidae is in reference to family, Zapodinae is in reference to subfamily. Most authorities consider the jumping mice to be a subfamily of the Dipodidae, others treat it as a separate family. --Aranae 20:03, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
- I've moved this page to Zapodinae for two reasons. The first is to match Mammal Species of the World Vol 3, which is basically the standardized reference for mammal taxonomy. I don't disagree with deviating from MSW3, but I think it requires a good reason and I don't there is one in this case. Most importantly, the genus Sicista has been shown to be basal among the dipodoids and is not particularly related to the Zapodinae. So if we treat Zapodidae as a family, what do we do with Sicistinae. Overall, I think resorting to MSW3 is the best way to deal with this. It's actually already present in half the dipodoid articles anyway. --Aranae 04:52, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
