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The skull of Cedromus and a review of the Cedromurinae (Rodentia, Sciuridae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

William W. Korth  and
Robert J. Emry
William W. Korth
Affiliation:
1Department of Geological Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627 and Department of Geosciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York 14456
Robert J. Emry
Affiliation:
2Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
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Abstract

The problematical rodent genus Cedromus Wilson, previously only known from the Orellan of the Great Plains, has been considered a sciurid by some authors and an aplodontid by others. An excellent collection of complete skulls with associated mandibles from Converse County, Wyoming, has provided evidence that this genus is a sciurid but that it represents a new subfamily distinguished from all other sciurids by a unique zygomasseteric structure that closely approaches myomorphy. A second genus, Oligospermophilus Korth, also from the Orellan of the Great Plains, is allocated to this subfamily.

Additional and more complete cranial material of the primitive aplodontid Prosciurus indicates that sciurids and aplodontids share a common ancestry and should be included together at least within the same suborder Sciuromorpha.

Three species of Cedromus are recognized, C. wardi Wilson, C. wilsoni n. sp., and Cedromus sp.; the latter extends the known temporal range of the genus into the Whitneyan.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 65 , Issue 6 , November 1991 , pp. 984 - 994
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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