Cuniculidae Miller and Gidley 1918

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cuniculidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1559-1560 : 1559

Cuniculidae Miller and Gidley 1918

Cuniculidae Miller and Gidley 1918 , J. Wash. Acad. Sci., 8 (13): 446.

Synonyms: Agoutidae Gray 1821 ; Coelogenyidae Gervais 1849 .

Genera: 1 genus with 2 species:

Genus Cuniculus Brisson 1762 (2 species with 5 subspecies)

Discussion: The familial and subfamilial status of this taxon has been debated; Husson (1978:472), Cabrera (1961:593) and McKenna and Bell, 1997:197) placed in Agoutidae ; Hall (1981:858) placed in Agoutinae of the Dasyproctidae : Starrett (1967:269) placed in Cuniculinae of the Dasyproctidae ; and Ellerman (1940:221) in the Cuniculidae . With the ruling by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1998) that Cuniculus is to be conserved, Cuniculidae is the proper familial name. Chromosomal ( George and Weir, 1974), allozyme ( Woods, 1982) and sequence data ( Rowe and Honeycutt, 2002) support recognition as a distinct family. Placed in the superfamily Cavioidea by Woods (1982) and McKenna and Bell (1997).