Muroidea

Muroidea Temporal range: Middle Eocene – recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Common house mouse (Mus musculus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Myomorpha
Superfamily:	Muroidea Illiger, 1811
Families
Platacanthomyidae Spalacidae Calomyscidae Nesomyidae Cricetidae Muridae sister: Dipodoidea

Muroidea is a large superfamily of rodents. It includes hamsters, gerbils, true mice and rats, and many other relatives. They live on almost every continent except Antarctica. Some scientists have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae. Sometimes there are difficulties in knowing how the subfamilies are related to one another.

The muroids are classified in 6 families, 19 subfamilies, around 280 genera and at least 1300 species.

Taxonomy

• Family Platacanthomyidae - incertae sedis - (spiny dormouse and pygmy dormice)
• Family Spalacidae fossorial muroids
  • Subfamily Myospalacinae (zokors)
  • Subfamily Rhizomyinae (bamboo rats and root rats)
  • Subfamily Spalacinae (blind mole rats)
• Clade Eumuroida - typical muroids
  • Family Calomyscidae
    • Subfamily Calomyscinae (mouse-like hamsters)
  • Family Nesomyidae
    • Subfamily Cricetomyinae (pouched rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Dendromurinae (African climbing mice, gerbil mice, fat mice and forest mice)
    • Subfamily Mystromyinae (white-tailed rat)
    • Subfamily Nesomyinae (Malagasy rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Petromyscinae (rock mice and the climbing swamp mouse)
  • Family Cricetidae
    • Subfamily Arvicolinae (voles, lemmings and muskrat)
    • Subfamily Cricetinae (true hamsters)
    • Subfamily Neotominae (North American rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Sigmodontinae (New World rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Tylomyinae
  • Family Muridae
    • Subfamily Deomyinae (spiny mice, brush furred mice, link rat)
    • Subfamily Gerbillinae (gerbils, jirds and sand rats)
    • Subfamily Leimacomyinae (Togo Mouse)
    • Subfamily Lophiomyinae (crested rat)
    • Subfamily Murinae (Old World rats and mice including vlei rats)

This phylogeny has more than 70 Muroidea genera. It is from phylogeny analysis of their RBP3 (IRBP) gene. This was done by Jansa & Weksler (2004: 264). Although Platacanthomyidae was not analyzed by Jansa & Weksler (2004), a study by Fabre et al. 2012 suggests that it is sister to the remaining groups within Muroidea.

References

• Jansa, S. A.; Giarla, T. C.; Lim, B. K. (2009). "The Phylogenetic Position of the Rodent Genus Typhlomys and the Geographic Origin of Muroidea". Journal of Mammalogy. 90 (5): 1083. doi:10.1644/08-MAMM-A-318.1.
• Jansa, S.A.; Weksler, M. (2004). "Phylogeny of muroid rodents: relationships within and among major lineages as determined by IRBP gene sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (1): 256–276. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.07.002. PMID 15019624.
• Michaux, J.; Reyes, A.; Catzeflis, F. (2001). "Evolutionary history of the most speciose mammals: Molecular phylogeny of muroid rodents". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 18 (11): 2017–2031. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a003743. PMID 11606698.
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 1993. Family Muridae. pp. 501–755 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.
• Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 894–1531. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
• Norris, R. W.; Zhou, K.; Zhou, C.; Yang, G.; William Kilpatrick, C.; Honeycutt, R. L. (2004). "The phylogenetic position of the zokors (Myospalacinae) and comments on the families of muroids (Rodentia)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (3): 972–978. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.10.020. PMID 15120394.

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