Muroids Fossil range: Middle Eocene - Recent
Microtus arvalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Superfamily:	Muroidea Illiger, 1811
Families
Platacanthomyidae Spalacidae Calomyscidae Nesomyidae Cricetidae Muridae

Muroidea is a large superfamily of rodents. It includes hamsters, gerbils, true mice and rats, and many other relatives. They occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Some authorities have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae, due to difficulties in determining how the subfamilies are related to one another. The following taxonomy is based on recent well-supported molecular phylogenies.

The muroids are classified in 6 families, 19 subfamilies, around 280 genera and at least 1300 species.

[edit] Taxonomy

• Family Platacanthomyidae - incertae sedis - (spiny dormouse and pygmy dormice)
• Family Spalacidae fossorial muroids
  • Subfamily Myospalacinae (zokors)
  • Subfamily Rhizomyinae (bamboo rats and root rats)
  • Subfamily Spalacinae (blind mole rats)
• Clade Eumuroida - typical muroids
  • Family Calomyscidae
    • Subfamily Calomyscinae (mouse-like hamsters)
  • Family Nesomyidae
    • Subfamily Cricetomyinae (pouched rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Dendromurinae (African climbing mice, gerbil mice, fat mice and forest mice)
    • Subfamily Mystromyinae (white-tailed rat)
    • Subfamily Nesomyinae (Malagasy rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Petromyscinae (rock mice and the climbing swamp mouse)
  • Family Cricetidae
    • Subfamily Arvicolinae (voles, lemmings and muskrat)
    • Subfamily Cricetinae (true hamsters)
    • Subfamily Neotominae (North American rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Sigmodontinae (New World rats and mice)
    • Subfamily Tylomyinae
  • Family Muridae
    • Subfamily Deomyinae (spiny mice, brush furred mice, link rat)
    • Subfamily Gerbillinae (gerbils, jirds and sand rats)
    • Subfamily Leimacomyinae (Togo Mouse)
    • Subfamily Lophiomyinae (crested rat)
    • Subfamily Murinae (Old World rats and mice including vlei rats)

[edit] References

• Jansa, Sharon. A.; Weksler, Marcelo (2004), "Phylogeny of muroid rodents: relationships within and among major lineages as determined by IRBP gene sequences", Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31 (1): 256–276, doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.07.002, http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/ffmw1/pdfs/jansa.2004.pdf .
• Michaux, Johan; Reyes, Aurelio; Catzeflis, François (01 Nov 2001), "Evolutionary History of the Most Speciose Mammals: Molecular Phylogeny of Muroid Rodents", Molecular Biology and Evolution 18 (11): 2017–2031, ISSN 0737-4038, PMID 11606698, http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/11/2017 .
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 1993. Family Muridae. Pp. 501-755 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894-1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• Norris, R. W., K. Y. Zhou, C. Q. Zhou, G. Yang, C. W. Kilpatrick, and R. L. Honeycutt. 2004. The phylogenetic position of the zokors (Myospalacinae) and comments on the families of muroids (Rodentia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 31:972-978.
• Steppan, Scott; Adkins, Ronald; Anderson, Joel (2004), "Phylogeny and Divergence-Date Estimates of Rapid Radiations in Muroid Rodents Based on Multiple Nuclear Genes", Systematic Biology 53 (4): 533–553, doi:10.1080/10635150490468701, http://bio.fsu.edu/~steppan/Steppan_et_al_Muroidea_2004.pdf .