Talk:Rodent
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The Muroids (mouse superfamily) are a mess and are only beginning to be resolved. I'm not entirely sure where the taxonomy from this page comes from, it's similar to but not exactly like Chaline and colleagues' 1977 paper in Mammalia. This is a pretty outdated taxonomy that's not seen much anymore except for in some of the paleontological literature. The Muridae approach takes the philosophy of we really don't know and if we guess we're wrong, so let's put all 1,000 species in the same family for convenience. Based on the much more recent molecular work (i.e. Adkins and Steppan and their approach in a 2004 Systematic Biology article), the Cricetinae (hamsters) would be placed in the family Cricetidae in the superfamily Muroidea. Muridae would be restricted to the Murinae, Deomyinae, Lophiomyinae, and Gerbillinae. I'm new in town, but hoping to flesh out the muroid rodents a bit. Aranae 18 Nov 2004.
Cricetidae is listed as a family on this page, but as a subfamily (Cricetinae) on the Muridae page. Which is it? john 18:40, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Arvicolidae
Where's Arvicolidae family? Palearctic voles and lemmings? --Joy [shallot] 09:51, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Oh, it's spelled with a n instead of a d here... weird. I made a redirect at Arvicolidae now. --Joy [shallot]
- The term Arvicolidae is used when the voles are granted full family status as has rarely been seen in Russian and paleontological literature. This is usually on the basis of their unique teeth. They are more closely related to the hamsters than anything else is, so such an elevation would require all the families listed on the page, plus at least splitting the New World rats and mice into another full family, Sigmodontidae (or Hesperomyidae). The same is true for the rare occasion when you might see Gerbillidae. To recognize full family status for gerbils would require Lophiomyidae and Deomyidae to be families as well. The muroid pages currently follow Steppan and Adkins (2004), which is really the only comprehensive and well-supported phylogenetic analysis to date. Very good call on the redirect. --Aranae 20:48, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)