Sciuridae
From Freepedia
| Sciurids Fossil Range: Late Eocene - Recent | ||||||||||||
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| Image:Squirrel2.jpg Eastern Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis | ||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
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| Subfamilies | ||||||||||||
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There are 2 subfamilies: |
The Sciurids or squirrels are a large family of rodents. It includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, the marmots (which include woodchucks) and also the Eurasian flying squirrels, but not the African scaly-tailed flying squirrels, which belong to the family Anomaluridae and are not sciurids at all. Sciurids are found in all continents except Australasia and Antarctica.
The following list of genera is non-authoritative, and has not been placed in an order that reflects current taxonomic or cladistic research. The list given here classified the family into 280 species grouped into 48 genera, but it is important to realise that biological classification is never final or completely agreed, and other slightly different lists will be encountered. In addition, current studies in molecular evolution are likely to lead to some revision of the classification of this group, as of many others.



