Glirulus Thomas 1905

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Gliridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 819-840 : 838

Glirulus Thomas 1905

Glirulus Thomas 1905 , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1905 (2): 347.

Type Species: Myoxus javanicus Schinz 1845

Synonyms: Amphidyromys Heller 1936 ; Paraglirulus Engesser 1972 .

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Glirulus japonicus (Schinz 1845)

Discussion: The phylogenetic study by Wahlert et al. (1993) supports inclusion of Glirulus within Glirinae , as did Montgelard et al.’s (2003) phylogenetic analyses of nuclear and mitochondrial gene sequences (see also comment under Glirinae ). Daams and de Bruijn (1995) arranged this genus within their Dryomyinae (in which they also include Dryomys , Eliomys , Graphiurus and Chaetocauda ). Suzuki et al. (1997) presented genetic data indicating that Glirulus may belong in its own subfamily, though their study only included Dryomys and Muscardinus for comparison. Although the geographic range of the sole extant species of Glirulus is restricted to Japan, the genus is represented in Europe and Turkey by early Miocene, Pliocene and early Pleistocene fossils ( Bednarczyk, 1993; Daams and de Bruijn, 1995; Hugueney and Mein, 1965; Kowalski, 1963, 2001; Nadachowski and Daoud, 1995; Unay, 1994). Molars identified as Glirulus from late Oligocene beds in Xinjiang Prov. of NW China provide the oldest record of not only a dormouse from China but of Glirulus itself ( Wu et al., 2000). A late Miocene fossil from Ardèche, France, suggests that an extinct species of Glirulus was capable of gliding ( Mein and Romaggi, 1991). Evolutionary patterns of dental morphology during Pliocene and Pleistocene discussed by Nadachowski and Daoud (1995).