Cuniculidae Miller and Gidley 1918

Cuniculidae Miller and Gidley 1918, J. Wash. Acad. Sci., 8 (13): 446.

Synonyms: Agoutidae Gray 1821; Coelogenyidae Gervais 1849 .

Genera: 1 genus with 2 species:

Genus Cuniculus Brisson 1762 (2 species with 5 subspecies)

Discussion: The familial and subfamilial status of this taxon has been debated; Husson (1978:472), Cabrera (1961:593) and McKenna and Bell, 1997:197) placed in Agoutidae; Hall (1981:858) placed in Agoutinae of the Dasyproctidae: Starrett (1967:269) placed in Cuniculinae of the Dasyproctidae; and Ellerman (1940:221) in the Cuniculidae . With the ruling by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1998) that Cuniculus is to be conserved, Cuniculidae is the proper familial name. Chromosomal (George and Weir, 1974), allozyme (Woods, 1982) and sequence data (Rowe and Honeycutt, 2002) support recognition as a distinct family. Placed in the superfamily Cavioidea by Woods (1982) and McKenna and Bell (1997).