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Reproductive and Chromosomal Characters of Ctenodactylids as a Key to Their Evolutionary Relationships

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Evolutionary Relationships among Rodents

Part of the book series: NATO Advanced Science Institutes (ASI) Series ((NSSA,volume 92))

Abstract

When Zittel named the family Ctenodactylidae in 1893 to include Ctenodactylus, Pectinator, Petromys and the fossil Pelligrinia, the genera of gundis had had a chequered career in the classification systems. Originally, Ctenodactylus had been classified with Petromus as a dipodid by Gervais (1848), but gundis were octodontids for Brandt (1855), Flower and Lydekker (1891). Blyth (1855) assigned Pectinator to the chinchillids, and the two genera became murids in Alston’s classification of 1876. With the addition of two more genera, the gundis achieved family status, but this did not make their position any more certain, and they wandered round the suborders for the next 90 years. Tullberg (1899) and Ellerman (1940) claimed them for the Myomorpha; Wood (1955) for the Sciuromorpha; Thomas (1896), Winge (1924), Weber (1928) and Landry (1957) for the Hystricomorpha; and the majority were unable to assign them to any of the three conventional suborders (Miller and Gidley, 1918; Bohlin, 1946; Simpson, 1945; Grassé and Dekeyser, 1955; Wood, 1965, 1974, 1977; Shevyreva, 1971; Chaline and Mein, 1979; Patterson and Wood, 1982). They gave rise to feelings of despair in some authors: “this group vies with or exceeds the bathyergids in uncertainty” (Simpson, 1945) - and “les rapports avec les autres formes restent de plus en plus énigmatiques” (Grassé and Dekeyser, 1955).

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, England

    Wilma George

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  1. Wilma George
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  1. School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA

    W. Patrick Luckett

  2. Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, University of Montpellier II, Montpellier, France

    Jean-Louis Hartenberger

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George, W. (1985). Reproductive and Chromosomal Characters of Ctenodactylids as a Key to Their Evolutionary Relationships. In: Luckett, W.P., Hartenberger, JL. (eds) Evolutionary Relationships among Rodents. NATO Advanced Science Institutes (ASI) Series, vol 92. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0539-0_17

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