Mystromyinae Vorontsov, 1966

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 : 676

Subfamily Mystromyinae Vorontsov, 1966 . Zool. Zh., 45:437.

COMMENTS: Phylogenetic allocation of Mystromys so puzzled Ellerman (1941:445) that he wrote "I am entirely at a loss to suggest the relationships of this genus, which seems not only isolated from the Palaearctic and Neotropical genera, but to have no marked generic characters ... " Based on study of external, skeletal, dentition, gastrointestinal, genital and other anatomical characteristics of Mystromys albicaudatus, Vorontsov (1966) concluded the species was not closely related to Palaearctic hamsters and placed Mystromys in the monotypic tribe Mystromyini . Carleton and Musser (1984:313) remarked that Mystromys is possibly a survivor of an ancient phyletic line, pointing out that Lavocat (1973, 1978) "raised such a novel possibility for Mystromys by noting its probable derivation from afrocricetodontine rodents and by recognizing the subfamily Mystromyinae in the Nesomyidae , a family composed of archaic African cricetids that he derived from the afrocricetodontines, the African counterpart to European and Asian cricetodontines." Pocock (1987) and Skinner and Smithers (1990) retained Mystromys in the Cricetinae of family Cricetidae .