Mephitidae
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Mephitidae
Accepted name, Mammal Species of the World 2005
The traditional Mustelidae (including skunks) has always been a problematic group. Radinsky (1973) first proposed a relationship between the Mephitinae (sensu Simpson, 1945) and Mydaus. Morphological studies seem to provide some support for a monophyletic Mustelidae (Hunt, 1974; Wolsan, 1999; Wozencraft, 1989; Wyss and Flynn, 1993). However, Bryant et al. (1993), Ledje and Arnason (1996), and Bininda-Emonds et al. (1999) showed support for Radinsky's MephitinaeMydaus group. Dragoo and Honeycutt (1997) and Flynn et al. (2000) provided a thorough review of the relationships of these groups and followed others (Árnason and Widegren, 1986; Ledje and Árnason, 1996; Wayne et al., 1989) in the recognition of a paraphyletic traditional Mustelidae. I have chosen to follow Dragoo and Honeycutt (1997) and Flynn et al. (2000) in the separation of Mephitis, Conepatus, Spilogale and Mydaus from the remaining mustelids. But see Wolsan (1999) for suppor... [truncated]
- Wilson, D and Reeder, D. (eds.) 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. -- 2142 pp. Johns Hopkins University Press.