Myospalax aspalax (Pallas, 1776)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 675

Myospalax aspalax (Pallas, 1776) . Reise Prov. Russ. Reichs., 3:692.

TYPE LOCALITY: Russia, Transbaikalia, Dauuria ("Doldogo, on Onon River, below Atchinsk," Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:652) .

DISTRIBUTION: Russia (Upper Amur basin) and China (Nei Mongol).

SYNONYMS: armandii , dybowskii , talpinus , zokor .

COMMENTS: Listed, with a question mark, as a subspecies of M. myospalax by Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951), and unequivically as M. m. aspalax by Corbet (1978c), but separated on morphological grounds by Lawrence (1991) and others cited in her report. Closest phylogenetic relative is the Lower Pleistocene M. pseudarmandi , and both are in same monophyletic species-group containing the modern M. epsilanus , M. myospalax , and Pliocene M. youngi ( Lawrence, 1991) .