Rio Grande ground squirrel

The Rio Grande ground squirrel (Ictidomys parvidens) is a species of squirrel in the family Sciuridae. It is found in the south-western United States (Texas and New Mexico) and in north-eastern Mexico.

Rio Grande ground squirrel
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Genus:	Ictidomys
Species:	I. parvidens
Binomial name
Ictidomys parvidens (Mearns, 1896)
Synonyms
Spermophilus mexicanus parvidens

Taxonomy and systematics

The Rio Grande ground squirrel was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Mexican ground squirrel and, along with the other species of the genus Ictidomys, was classified in the much larger genus Spermophilus,^[1] until DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene showed that this group was paraphyletic to the prairie dogs and marmots,^[2] and could therefore no longer be retained as a single genus. As a result, Ictidomys is now considered as a genus in its own right.^[3]

References

1. Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
2. Herron, Matthew D.; Castoe, Todd A.; Parkinson, Christopher L. (2004). "Sciurid phylogeny and the paraphyly of Holarctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (3): 1015–30. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.09.015. PMID 15120398.
3. Helgen, Kristofer M.; Cole, F. Russel; Helgen, Lauren E.; Wilson, Don E (2009). "Generic Revision in the Holarctic Ground Squirrel Genus Spermophilus" (PDF). Journal of Mammalogy. 90 (2): 270–305. doi:10.1644/07-MAMM-A-309.1. S2CID 28483038.