Bathyergidae Waterhouse 1841

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Bathyergidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1538-1542 : 1538

Bathyergidae Waterhouse 1841

Bathyergidae Waterhouse 1841 , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, 8: 81.

Synonyms: Orycterideae Lesson 1842 .

Genera: 5 genera with 16 species in 2 subfamilies:

Subfamily Bathyerginae Waterhouse 1841

Genus Bathyergus Illiger 1811 (2 species)

Genus Cryptomys Gray 1864 (11 species with 7 subspecies)

Genus Georychus Illiger 1811 (1 species)

Genus Heliophobius Peters 1846 (1 species with 9 subspecies)

Subfamily Heterocephalinae Landry 1957

Genus Heterocephalus Rüppell 1842 (1 species)

Discussion: The family traditionally has been divided into two subfamilies ( Roberts, 1951): Bathyerginae with grooved upper incisors ( Bathyergus ); and Georychinae with ungrooved upper incisors ( Cryptomys , Georychus , Heliophobius , Heterocephalus ). Ellerman et al. (1953:227) suggested that a third subfamily should be recognized for the aberrant East African Heterocephalus . Molecular data ( Allard and Honeycutt, 1992; Faulkes et al., 1997; Honeycutt et al., 1991; Janecek et al., 1992; Nevo et al., 1987; Walton et al., 2000) do not support the traditional division into two subfamilies, but Heterocephalus is the most basal taxon of this family in nearly all of these studies. McKenna and Bell (1997) recognized two subfamilies, the Bathyerginae and the Heterocephalinae and placed the family in the parvorder Bathyergomorphi . Recent protein electrophoretic ( Filippucci et al., 1994; 1997; Janecek et al., 1992; Nevo et al., 1987), karyotypic ( Aguilar, 1993; Burda et al., 1999; Macholán et al., 1993; 1998; Nevo et al., 1986; Scharff et al., 2001) and molecular ( Allard and Honeycutt, 1992; Faulkes et al., 1997; Honeycutt et al., 1991; Nedbal et al., 1994; Walton et al., 2000) studies have contributed substantially to the resolution of the systematics of mole-rats.