Oriental giant squirrels Fossil range: Middle Miocene to Recent
Indian Giant Squirrel Ratufa indica
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Euarchontoglires
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Sciuromorpha
Family:	Sciuridae
Subfamily:	Ratufinae Moore, 1959
Genus:	Ratufa Gray, 1867
Species
Ratufa affinis Ratufa bicolor Ratufa indica Ratufa macroura

Oriental giant squirrels are very large squirrels from the genus Ratufa in the subfamily Ratufinae. They are found in parts of south- and southeast Asia.

There are four living species of oriental giant squirrels:

• Pale Giant Squirrel, Ratufa affinis
• Black Giant Squirrel, Ratufa bicolor
• Indian Giant Squirrel, Ratufa indica
• Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Ratufa macroura

In prehistoric times this lineage was more widespread. For example, animals very similar to Ratufa and possibly belonging to this genus - at least belonging to the Ratufinae - were part of the early Langhian (Middle Miocene, some 16-15.2 million years ago) Hambach fauna of Germany.^[1]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Gee, Carole T.; Sander, P. Martin & Petzelberger, Bianka E.M. (2003): A Miocene rodent nut cache in coastal dunes of the Lower Rhine Embayment, Germany. Palaeontology 46(6): 1133-1149. doi:10.1046/j.0031-0239.2003.00337.x (HTML abstract)

v • d • e Extant species of family Sciuridae (subfamilies Ratufinae and Sciurillinae) Kingdom: Animalia · Phylum: Chordata · Class: Mammalia · Order: Rodentia · Suborder: Sciuromorpha Ratufinae (Oriental giant squirrels) Ratufa Cream-coloured Giant Squirrel (Ratufa affinis) · Black Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) · Indian giant squirrel (Ratufa indica) · Grizzled Giant Squirrel (Ratufa macroura) Sciurillinae Sciurillus Neotropical Pygmy Squirrel (Sciurillus pusillus) Category

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