Sciuridae Hemprich, 1820

Robert S. Hoffmann & Charles G. Anderson, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 419-465 : 419

Family Sciuridae Hemprich, 1820 . Grundriss Naturgesch., p. 32.

COMMENTS: Ellerman (1940) reviewed the history of sciurid classification. The first modern classification ( Pocock, 1923) recognized six subfamilies: Sciurinae , Tamiasciurinae, Funambulinae, Callosciurinae, Xerinae , and Marmotinae. Simpson (1945) recognized the same taxa, but all at the tribal level. Ellerman (1940) avoided formal designation, but recognized seven "sections" in the Sciurus "group, " which often do not conform with the above. Moore (1959) recognized Simpson's six tribes and, in addition, Ratufini and Paraxerini for certain genera that had previously been included in Funambulini . Black (1963) elevated Tamiini to tribal level (previously in Marmotini ). Gromov et al. (1965) elevated the ground squirrels to subfamily rank, Marmotinae, which included the tribes Tamiini Black, Otospermophilini Gromov, Citellini Gromov, Marmotini Simpson (part), and Cynomyini Gromov. He also recognized the subfamilies Xerinae and Sciurinae , but did not treat any other groups. Emry and Thorington (1984) submerged Tamiasciurini in Sciurini and Tamiini in Marmotini . They also (1982) described the oldest known sciurid, Protosciurus , which they interpreted as an arboreal form similar to Sciurus from which both flying squirrels and ground squirrels have been derived. These authors treated flying squirrels as a monophyletic sister group to other squirrels, either as a family ( Pocock, 1923) or subfamily (other authors). The monophyly of flying squirrels has been both supported ( Thorington, 1984) and challenged ( Hight et al., 1974). Heaney (1985) recommended that the subtribe Hyosciurina of Moore (1959) be discarded because it lacks defining characters, and that the component genera ( Hyosciurus , Prosciurillus , Rubisciurus, and Exilisciurus ) be retained in tribe Callosciurini Simpson, 1945. A catolog of Indian sciurids was presented by Agrawal and Chakraborty (1979).