Heteromyidae Gray 1868

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Heteromyidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 844-858 : 844

Heteromyidae Gray 1868

Heteromyidae Gray 1868 , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1868: 201.

Genera: 6 genera with 60 species in 3 subfamilies:

Subfamily Dipodomyinae Gervais 1853

Genus Dipodomys Gray 1841 (19 species with 107 subspecies)

Genus Microdipodops Merriam 1891 (2 species with 18 subspecies)

Subfamily Heteromyinae Gray 1868

Genus Heteromys Desmarest 1817 (8 species with 19 subspecies)

Genus Liomys Merriam 1902 (5 species with 14 subspecies)

Subfamily Perognathinae Coues 1875

Genus Chaetodipus Merriam 1889 (17 species with 82 subspecies)

Genus Perognathus Wied-Neuwied 1839 (9 species with 63 subspecies)

Discussion: Currently divided into three subfamilies: Dipodomyinae containing the Recent genera Dipodomys and Microdipodops, Heteromyinae with Heteromys and Liomys , and Perognathinae comprised of Chaetodipus and Perognathus . Content defined by Wood (1935), Hafner and Hafner (1983), Wahlert (1985, 1993), and Korth (1994). Considered as a subfamily in the family Geomyidae (along with the extant pocket gophers, Geomyinae, and fossil Entotychinae) by McKenna and Bell (1997), following earlier suggestions of Shotwell (1967 b) and Lindsay (1972), with the subfamilies recognized here lowered to the rank of tribes. The hierarchical rank of both heteromyids and geomyids is partly a matter of taxonomic philosophy but it is also a decision that stems from the phylogenetic placement of the fossil entotychines. I accept the evidence presented by Wahlert (1988) and Korth (1994) that entotychines are the sister to the modern pocket gophers, and thus follow their arguments for maintaining the traditional separation of the Heteromyidae as a family apart from the Geomyidae in the accounts here. Syntheses of the taxonomy, systematics, morphological diversity, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, and other aspects of the biology of living and fossil heteromyids can be found in Genoways and Brown (1993). Of particular note, Williams et al. (1993) provide a synopsis of the taxonomy of species and subspecies, with keys to all extant genera and species recognized at that time.