Sciuridae

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Sciurids
Fossil Range: Late Eocene - Recent
Image:Squirrel2.jpg
Eastern Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Subphylum:Vertebrata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Rodentia
Family:Sciuridae
Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
Subfamilies

There are 2 subfamilies:
Petauristinae - flying squirrel
Sciurinae - tree squirrel, ground squirrel

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.

References



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