Sciurus

The genus Sciurus /saɪˈjʊərəs/ contains most of the common, bushy-tailed squirrels in North America, Europe, temperate Asia, Central America and South America.[1]

Sciurus
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Recent
Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Tribe: Sciurini
Genus: Sciurus
Linnaeus, 1758
Subgenera

Tenes
Sciurus
Hesperosciurus
Otosciurus
Guerlinguetus
Hadrosciurus
Urosciurus

Species

The number of species in the genus is subject to change. In 2005 Thorington & Hoffman accepted 28 species in the genus; this is the taxonomic interpretation followed by the IUCN website (most squirrel assessments were written in 2008, despite most being dated 2016/2017):

Genus Sciurus

Sciurus granatensis

In 2015, 15–17 species were left in the genus Sciurus after de Vivo & Carmignotto comprehensively reviewed South American Sciuridae for the first time in many decades and proposed numerous changes; synonymising some species and many subspecies, splitting another species, and naming new species. They followed Joel Asaph Allen's unsatisfying 1914 attempt in the early 20th century in splitting the genus Sciurus by raising the South American subgenera to the rank of genus, adding Urosciurus to Hadrosciurus, and splitting the genus Guerlinguetus in three. Their taxonomic treatment might also require Sciurus deppei to be moved to Notosciurus.[3]

References
  1. Thorington, R.W., Jr.; Hoffman, R.S. (2005). "Genus Sciurus". 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. 758–765. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. Wauters, Lucas A.; Giovanni Amori; Gaetano Aloise; Spartaco Gippoliti; Paolo Agnelli; Andrea Galimberti; Maurizio Casiraghi; Damiano Preatoni; Adriano Martinoli (2017). "New endemic mammal species for Europe: Sciurus meridionalis (Rodentia, Sciuridae)". Hystrix. 28 (1): 1–28. doi:10.4404/hystrix-28.1-12015.
  3. de Vivo, Mario; Carmignotto, Ana Paula (January 2015). "Family Sciuridae G. Fischer, 1817". In Patton, James L.; Pardiñas, Ulyses F.J.; D'Elía, Guillermo (eds.). Mammals of South America Volume 2, Rodents (1 ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–48. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226169606.001.0001. ISBN 978-0226169576. Retrieved 11 August 2018.


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