Microtus

MicrotusSchrank, 1798

Hyväksytty nimi, Maailman nisäkkäiden luettelo 2005

Arvicolini. Nowhere are the explosiveness and recency of arvicoline evolution more dramatically highlighted than by the inconsistency of systematic treatment of genus-group taxa to be subsumed by Microtus. Little consensus exists concerning the morphological limits or monophyly of many of these taxa, a situation that partly reflects the overly narrow reliance of our classifications on dental characters undergoing rapid change (see Guthrie, 1971; Koenigswald, 1980). The recency of speciation is another contributory factor—Conroy and Cook (2000a) dated the major pulse of diversification within Microtus as only 1.3 million years ago. See accounts of Blanfordimys, Chionomys, Lasiopodomys, Neodon, Phaiomys, and Proedromys, often included in Microtus but which are here treated as genera.North American forms revised by Bailey (1900) and taxonomy updated by Hall and Cockrum (1953) and Hall (1981); many aspects of a... [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.