Myospalax Laxmann 1769

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Spalacidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 907-926 : 911

Myospalax Laxmann 1769

Myospalax Laxmann 1769 , Sibirische Briefe, Gottingen: 75.

Type Species: Mus myospalax Laxmann 1773

Synonyms: Aspalomys Gervais 1841 ; Episiphneus Kretzoi 1961 ; Myotalpa Kerr 1792 ; Siphneus Brants 1827 .

Species and subspecies: 3 species:

Species Myospalax aspalax Pallas 1776

Species Myospalax myospalax Laxmann 1773

Species Myospalax psilurus Milne-Edwards 1874

Discussion: Phylogenetic relationships reviewed by Lawrence (1991) and Zheng (1994), both of whose analyses affiliated extant species listed here and extinct Pliocene and Pleistocene species in the same monophyletic group (flat occipital shield, short incisive foramina within premaxillary bone, rooted or rootless molars, and other traits considered primitive for the subfamily). Zheng (1994) revived Episiphneus for the extinct youngi and pseudarmandi (which he called sinensis ) and placed rootless forms in Myospalax . Lawrence (1991) demonstrated the artificiality of this arrangement, and we follow her arrangement in recognizing one genus with the M. psilurus and M. myospalax species groups, the latter also including the Pliocene and Pleistocene M. youngi and M. pseudarmandi . Myospalax as represented here is equivalent to Zheng’s (1994) Myospalacinae . Corbet (1978 c), following Kuzhyakin (1965), treated all Myospalax (they used subgenus Myospalax ) as a single highly variable species, a lumping which clashes with Ognev’s (1947) recognition of aspalax , myospalax , and psilurus as distinct; his arrangement proves to be a sharper insight into the real species diversity. Morphological, geographic, and other information for species with ranges in Russia and adjacent regions reviewed by Ognev (1947) and Gromov and Erbajeva (1995).