Ondatra Link, 1795

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 : 532

Ondatra Link, 1795 . Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte, 1 (2):76.

TYPE SPECIES: Castor zibethicus Linnaeus, 1766 .

SYNONYMS: Fiber , Moschomys , Simotes .

COMMENTS: Tribe Ondatrini , either as sole member ( Hooper and Hart, 1962; Koenigswald, 1980) or with Neofiber ( Chaline and Mein, 1979; Kretzoi, 1969; Repenning et al., 1990). Evidence from fossil history and morphology suggests that the two genera of "muskrats" are more distantly related than their inclusion in the same tribe would connote ( Carleton, 1981; Hooper and Hart, 1962; Koenigswald, 1980; L. D. Martin, 1975, 1979). Believed to have originated from Pliocene form Pliopotamys ( Eshelman, 1975; Zakrzewski, 1974).