Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Rodentia: a model order?
- 2 A synopsis of rodent molecular phylogenetics, systematics and biogeography
- 3 Emerging perspectives on some Paleogene sciurognath rodents in Laurasia: the fossil record and its interpretation
- 4 Phylogeny and evolutionary history of hystricognathous rodents from the Old World during the Tertiary: new insights into the emergence of modern “phiomorph” families
- 5 The history of South American octodontoid rodents and its contribution to evolutionary generalisations
- 6 History, taxonomy and palaeobiology of giant fossil rodents (Hystricognathi, Dinomyidae)
- 7 Advances in integrative taxonomy and evolution of African murid rodents: how morphological trees hide the molecular forest
- 8 Themes and variation in sciurid evolution
- 9 Marmot evolution and global change in the past 10 million years
- 10 Grades and clades among rodents: the promise of geometric morphometrics
- 11 Biogeographic variations in wood mice: testing for the role of morphological variation as a line of least resistance to evolution
- 12 The oral apparatus of rodents: variations on the theme of a gnawing machine
- 13 The muscles of mastication in rodents and the function of the medial pterygoid
- 14 Functional morphology of rodent middle ears
- 15 Variations and anomalies in rodent teeth and their importance for testing computational models of development
- 16 The great variety of dental structures and dynamics in rodents: new insights into their ecological diversity
- 17 Convergent evolution of molar topography in Muroidea (Rodentia, Mammalia): connections between chewing movements and crown morphology
- 18 Developmental mechanisms in the evolution of phenotypic traits in rodent teeth
- 19 Diversity and evolution of femoral variation in Ctenohystrica
- 20 Morphological disparity of the postcranial skeleton in rodents and its implications for palaeobiological inferences: the case of the extinct Theridomyidae (Rodentia, Mammalia)
- Index
- References
8 - Themes and variation in sciurid evolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Rodentia: a model order?
- 2 A synopsis of rodent molecular phylogenetics, systematics and biogeography
- 3 Emerging perspectives on some Paleogene sciurognath rodents in Laurasia: the fossil record and its interpretation
- 4 Phylogeny and evolutionary history of hystricognathous rodents from the Old World during the Tertiary: new insights into the emergence of modern “phiomorph” families
- 5 The history of South American octodontoid rodents and its contribution to evolutionary generalisations
- 6 History, taxonomy and palaeobiology of giant fossil rodents (Hystricognathi, Dinomyidae)
- 7 Advances in integrative taxonomy and evolution of African murid rodents: how morphological trees hide the molecular forest
- 8 Themes and variation in sciurid evolution
- 9 Marmot evolution and global change in the past 10 million years
- 10 Grades and clades among rodents: the promise of geometric morphometrics
- 11 Biogeographic variations in wood mice: testing for the role of morphological variation as a line of least resistance to evolution
- 12 The oral apparatus of rodents: variations on the theme of a gnawing machine
- 13 The muscles of mastication in rodents and the function of the medial pterygoid
- 14 Functional morphology of rodent middle ears
- 15 Variations and anomalies in rodent teeth and their importance for testing computational models of development
- 16 The great variety of dental structures and dynamics in rodents: new insights into their ecological diversity
- 17 Convergent evolution of molar topography in Muroidea (Rodentia, Mammalia): connections between chewing movements and crown morphology
- 18 Developmental mechanisms in the evolution of phenotypic traits in rodent teeth
- 19 Diversity and evolution of femoral variation in Ctenohystrica
- 20 Morphological disparity of the postcranial skeleton in rodents and its implications for palaeobiological inferences: the case of the extinct Theridomyidae (Rodentia, Mammalia)
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction: Themes emerge from variation in the Sciuridae as a group, a taxon and a clade
With a species diversity approaching 300 (Thorington and Hoffmann, 2005) and nearly worldwide in their distribution, squirrels are common and important elements of many ecological communities. The diurnal habits of most taxa together with their relative conformity in body plan make them familiar and easily recognized by both scientists and non-specialists.
The squirrel family, Sciuridae, also has a long history of recognition by taxonomists as a coherent grouping, despite its comprising distinctive forms associated with use of different locomotor substrates (Table 8.1). At times, burrowing or gliding forms have been separated from the archetypal arboreal squirrels: Fischer de Waldheim (1817), the authority credited for naming the Sciuridae (Thorington and Hoffmann, 2005), advocated use of limb structure in recognizing groups of mammals, and accordingly, he removed flying squirrels (‘Petauristus’, Fischer de Waldheim, 1817: p. 422) to another ‘Division’ apart from ‘Familia Sciuriorum’ (p. 408), even though Linnaeus had placed flying squirrels together with tree and some ground squirrels under SCIURUS (Linnaeus, 1758: pp. 63–64; see Table 8.1). Woodchucks and marmots have also posed something of a problem, to Linnaeus (1758:p. 60), who listed them under ‘MUS’, and to many subsequent authors who also set them apart from other sciurids. However, by late 1839 (according to Brandt, 1855: p. 106, and Alston, 1876: p. 62) all of these animals had been combined by Waterhouse to form a version of Sciuridae that would be congruent with the modern concept of the family. Along the way, dormice (referred to as ‘Myoxus’) have often crept into lists of squirrels (e.g. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817, but not those of Linnaeus before him or Brandt subsequently), both their exclusion and their inclusion foreshadowing current views based on molecular evidence that dormice are distinct from sciurids but have closer affinities with them (plus aplodontids) than with other rodent families (e.g. Blanga-Kanfi et al., 2009; Churakov et al., 2010; Fabre et al., 2012).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evolution of the RodentsAdvances in Phylogeny, Functional Morphology and Development, pp. 221 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
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