Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T15:11:06.468Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The skull of Cedromus and a review of the Cedromurinae (Rodentia, Sciuridae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

William W. Korth  and
Robert J. Emry
William W. Korth
Affiliation:
1Department of Geological Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627 and Department of Geosciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York 14456
Robert J. Emry
Affiliation:
2Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The problematical rodent genus Cedromus Wilson, previously only known from the Orellan of the Great Plains, has been considered a sciurid by some authors and an aplodontid by others. An excellent collection of complete skulls with associated mandibles from Converse County, Wyoming, has provided evidence that this genus is a sciurid but that it represents a new subfamily distinguished from all other sciurids by a unique zygomasseteric structure that closely approaches myomorphy. A second genus, Oligospermophilus Korth, also from the Orellan of the Great Plains, is allocated to this subfamily.

Additional and more complete cranial material of the primitive aplodontid Prosciurus indicates that sciurids and aplodontids share a common ancestry and should be included together at least within the same suborder Sciuromorpha.

Three species of Cedromus are recognized, C. wardi Wilson, C. wilsoni n. sp., and Cedromus sp.; the latter extends the known temporal range of the genus into the Whitneyan.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 65 , Issue 6 , November 1991 , pp. 984 - 994
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Black, C. C. 1963. A review of the North American Tertiary Sciuridae. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 130:109–248.Google Scholar
Black, C. C. 1965. Fossil mammals from Montana. Part 2. Rodents from the early Oligocene Pipestone Springs local fauna. Annals of Carnegie Museum, 38:1–48.Google Scholar
Black, C. C. 1971. Paleontology and geology of the Badwater Creek area, central Wyoming. Part 7. Rodents of the family Ischyromyidae. Annals of Carnegie Museum, 43:179–217.Google Scholar
Bowdich, T. E. 1821. An Analysis of the Natural Classifications of Mammalia for the Use of Students and Travellers. J. Smith, Paris, 115 p.Google Scholar
Bugge, J. 1974. The cephalic arterial system in insectivores, primates, rodents and lagomorphs, with special reference to the systematic classification. Acta Anatomica, 87(supplement 62):1–160.Google Scholar
Emry, R. J., and Korth, W. W. 1989. Rodents of the Bridgerian (Middle Eocene) Elderberry Canyon local fauna of eastern Nevada. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleontology, 67:1–14.Google Scholar
Emry, R. J., and Thorington, R. W. Jr. 1982. Descriptive and comparative osteology of the oldest fossil squirrel, Protosciurus (Rodentia: Sciuridae). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, 47:1–35.Google Scholar
Galbreath, E. C. 1953. A contribution to the Tertiary geology and paleontology of northeastern Colorado. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Vertebrata, 4:1–120.Google Scholar
Gray, J. E. 1821. On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals. London Medical Repository, 15:296–310.Google Scholar
Korth, W. W. 1981. New Oligocene rodents from western North America. Annals of Carnegie Museum, 50:289–318.Google Scholar
Korth, W. W. 1984. Earliest Tertiary evolution and radiation of rodents of North America. Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 24:1–71.Google Scholar
Korth, W. W. 1987. Sciurid rodents (Mammalia) from the Chadronian and Orellan (Oligocene) of Nebraska. Journal of Paleontology, 61:1247–1255.Google Scholar
Korth, W. W. 1989. Aplodontid rodents (Mammalia) from the Oligocene (Orellan and Whitneyan) Brule Formation, Nebraska. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 9:400–414.Google Scholar
Lavocat, R., and Parent, J.-P. 1985. Phylogenetic analysis of middle ear features in fossil and living rodents, p. 333–354. In Luckett, W. P. and Hartenberger, J.-L. (eds.), Evolutionary Relationships Among Rodents, a Multidisciplinary Analysis. NATO ASI Series, Series A: Life Sciences Volume 92.Google Scholar
Meng, J. 1990. The auditory region of Reithroparamys delicatissimus (Mammalia, Rodentia) and its systematic implications. American Museum Novitates, 2972:1–35.Google Scholar
Rensberger, J. M. 1975. Haplomys and its bearing on the origin of the aplodontoid rodents. Journal of Mammalogy, 56:1–14.Google Scholar
Rensberger, J. M. 1983. Successions of meniscomyine and allomyine rodents (Aplodontidae) in the Oligo-Miocene John Day Formation, Oregon. University of California Publications in the Geological Sciences, 124:1–157.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Kittler, N., and Vianey-Liaud, M. 1979. Evolution des Aplodontidae oligocénes européens. Palaeovertebrata, 9:33–82.Google Scholar
Wahlert, J. H. 1974. The cranial foramina of protrogomorphous rodents; an anatomical and phylogenetic study. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 146:363–410.Google Scholar
Wahlert, J. H. 1985. Cranial foramina of rodents, p. 311–332. In Luckett, W. P. and Hartenberger, J.-L. (eds.), Evolutionary Relationships Among Rodents, a Multidisciplinary Analysis. NATO ASI Series, Series A: Life Sciences Volume 92.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. W. 1949. On some White River fossil rodents. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publications, 584:27–50.Google Scholar
Wood, A. E. 1937. The mammalian fauna of the White River Oligocene. Part II. Rodentia. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 28:155–269.Google Scholar
Wood, A. E. 1962. The early Tertiary rodents of the family Paramyidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 52:1–261.Google Scholar
Wood, A. E. 1980. The Oligocene rodents of North America. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 70:1–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, A. E., and Wilson, R. W. 1936. A suggested nomenclature for the cusps of the cheek teeth of rodents. Journal of Paleontology, 10:388–391.Google Scholar