Subfamily of rodents
The
Arvicolinae
are a
subfamily
of
rodents
that includes the
voles
,
lemmings
, and
muskrats
. They are most closely related to the other subfamilies in the
Cricetidae
(comprising the
hamsters
and
New World rats and mice
[1]
). Some authorities place the subfamily Arvicolinae in the family
Muridae
along with all other members of the superfamily
Muroidea
.
[2]
Some refer to the subfamily as the
Microtinae
(yielding the adjective "microtine")
[3]
or rank the taxon as a full
family
, the
Arvicolidae
.
[4]
The Arvicolinae are the most populous group of
Rodentia
in the Northern Hemisphere. They often are found in fossil occlusions of bones cached by past predators such as owls and other birds of prey. Fossils of this group are often used for
biostratigraphic
dating of paleontological and archeological sites in North America and Europe.
[5]
Description
[
edit
]
The most convenient distinguishing feature of the Arvicolinae is the nature of their
molar
teeth, which have prismatic
cusps
in the shape of alternating triangles. These molars are an adaptation to a
herbivorous
diet in which the major food plants include a large proportion of abrasive materials such as
phytoliths
; the teeth get worn down by abrasion throughout the adult life of the animal and they grow continuously in compensation.
[6]
Arvicolinae are
Holarctic
in distribution and represent one of only a few major
muroid
radiations to reach the
New World
via
Beringia
. (The others are the three subfamilies of
New World rats and mice
.) Arvicolines do very well in the subnival zone beneath the winter snowpack, and persist throughout winter without needing to
hibernate
. They are also characterized by extreme fluctuations in population numbers.
Most arvicolines are small, furry, short-tailed
voles
or
lemmings
, but some, such as
Ellobius
and
Hyperacrius
, are well adapted to a
fossorial
lifestyle. Others, such as
Ondatra
,
Neofiber
, and
Arvicola
, have evolved larger body sizes and are associated with an
aquatic
lifestyle.
Phylogeny
[
edit
]
The
phylogeny
of the Arvicolinae has been studied using morphological and molecular characters. Markers for the molecular phylogeny of arvicolines included the
mitochondrial DNA
cytochrome b (
cyb
) gene
[7]
and the exon 10 of the
growth hormone receptor
(
ghr
) nuclear gene.
[8]
The comparison of the
cyb
and
ghr
phylogenetic results seems to indicate nuclear genes are useful for resolving relationships of recently evolved animals. As compared to mitochondrial genes,
nuclear genes
display several informative sites in third
codon
positions that evolve rapidly enough to accumulate
synapomorphies
, but slow enough to avoid evolutionary noise.
Of note, mitochondrial
pseudogenes
translocated within the nuclear genome complicate the assessment of the mitochondrial DNA
orthology
, but they can also be used as phylogenetic markers.
[9]
Sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes of voles
[10]
may help to distinguish between authentic genes and pseudogenes.
The complementary phylogenetic analysis of morphological and molecular characters
[8]
[11]
suggests:
- Ellobius
,
Prometheomys
, and
Lagurus
are among the most basal arvicolines.
- Dicrostonyx
,
Phenacomys
, and
Arborimus
may form a clade.
- Core arvicolines include three subclades:
- Lemmini
:
Synaptomys
,
Lemmus
,
Myopus
- Myodini
:
Eothenomys
,
Myodes
- Arvicolini
:
Arvicola
,
Chionomys
,
Stenocranius
, and
Microtus
- Microtus
sensu lato
contains
Alexandromys
, ‘
Neodon
’,
Mynomes
,
Lasiopodomys
,
Terricola
, and
Microtus
sensu stricto
.
- Ondatra
and
Dinaromys
positions are uncertain, probably compromised by the
convergent evolution
of morphological characters.
Some authorities have placed the
zokors
within the Arvicolinae, but they have been shown
[
by whom?
]
to be unrelated.
A 2021 study found
Lemmini
to be the most basal group of Arvicolinae. The study also found
Arvicola
to actually fall outside the tribe
Arvicolini
, and to be sister to the tribe
Lagurini
.
[12]
Classification
[
edit
]
Subfamily Arvicolinae
-
voles
,
lemmings
,
muskrats
The subfamily Arvicolinae contains eleven tribes, eight of which are classified as voles, two as lemmings, and one as muskrats.
[13]
Recent changes to the subfamily include disbanding genus
Myodes
in favor of genera
Clethrionomys
and
Craseomys
(and disbanding
Myodini
in favor of
Clethrionomyini
), moving most of the genera from
Arvicolini
to
Microtini
, and renaming
Phenacomyini
as
Pliophenacomyini
.
[13]
- Tribe
Arvicolini
- Tribe
Microtini
- Genus
Alexandromys
- Genus
Chionomys
- snow voles
- Genus
Hyperacrius
- voles from
Pakistan
- Genus
Lasiopodomys
- Genus
Lemmiscus
- Genus
Microtus
- voles
- Insular vole
,
M. abbreviatus
- California vole
,
M. californicus
- Rock vole
,
M. chrotorrhinus
- Long-tailed vole
,
M. longicaudus
- Mexican vole
,
M. mexicanus
- Singing vole
,
M. miurus
- North American water vole
,
M. richardsoni
- Zempoaltepec vole
,
M. umbrosus
- Taiga vole
,
M. xanthognathus
- Subgenus
Microtus
- Field vole
,
M. agrestis
- Anatolian vole
,
M. anatolicus
- Common vole
,
M. arvalis
- Cabrera's vole
,
M. cabrerae
- Do?ramaci's vole
,
M. dogramacii
- Elbeyli vole
,
M. elbeyli
- Gunther's vole
,
M. guentheri
- Harting's vole
,
M. hartingii
- Tien Shan vole
,
M. ilaeus
- Persian vole
,
M. irani
- Mediterranean field vole
,
M. lavernedii
- Turkish vole
,
M. lydius
- Kerman vole
,
M. kermanensis
- Southern vole
,
M. levis
- Paradox vole
,
M. paradoxus
- Qazvin vole
,
M. qazvinensis
- Portuguese field vole
,
M. rosianus
- Schidlovsky's vole
,
M. schidlovskii
- Social vole
,
M. socialis
- European pine vole
,
M. subterraneus
- Transcaspian vole
,
M. transcaspicus
- Subgenus
Blanfordimys
- Subgenus
Terricola
- Bavarian pine vole
,
M. bavaricus
- Calabria pine vole
,
M. brachycercus
- Daghestan pine vole
,
M. daghestanicus
- Mediterranean pine vole
,
M. duodecimcostatus
- Felten's vole
,
M. felteni
- Liechtenstein's pine vole
,
M. liechtensteini
- Lusitanian pine vole
,
M. lusitanicus
- Major's pine vole
,
M. majori
- Alpine pine vole
,
M. multiplex
- Sicilian pine vole
,
M. nebrodensis
- Savi's pine vole
,
M. savii
- Tatra pine vole
,
M. tatricus
- Thomas's pine vole
,
M. thomasi
- Subgenus
Mynomes
- Subgenus
Pitymys
- Subgenus
Pedomys
- Subgenus
Hyrcanicola
- Genus
Mictomicrotus
- Genus
Neodon
- mountain voles
- Genus
Proedromys
- Genus
Stenocranius
- Genus
Volemys
- Tribe
Dicrostonychini
- collared lemmings
- Tribe
Ellobiusini
- mole voles
- Tribe
Lagurini
- Tribe
Lemmini
- Tribe
Clethrionomyini
- Tribe
Ondatrini
- muskrats
- Tribe
Pliophenacomyini
- Tribe
Pliomyini
- Tribe
Prometheomyini
Fossil species
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Steppan, S. J., R. A. Adkins, and J. Anderson. 2004.
Phylogeny
and
divergence date
estimates of rapid radiations in
muroid
rodents
based on multiple nuclear
genes
. Systematic Biology, 53:533-553.
- ^
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.
- ^
Nakao, Minoru; Yanagida, Tetsuya; Okamoto, Munehiro; Knapp, Jenny; Nkouawa, Agathe; Sako, Yasuhito; Ito, Akira (2010). "State-of-the-art
Echinococcus
and
Taenia
: Phylogenetic taxonomy of human-pathogenic tapeworms and its application to molecular diagnosis".
Infection, Genetics and Evolution
.
10
(4).
Elsevier
: 444?452.
doi
:
10.1016/j.meegid.2010.01.011
.
ISSN
1567-1348
.
PMID
20132907
.
- ^
McKenna, M. C. and S. K. Bell. 1997.
Classification
of
Mammals
above the
Species
Level. Columbia University Press, New York.
- ^
Klein, Richard (2009).
The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins
. London: The University of Chicago Press. p. 25.
ISBN
978-0-226-43965-5
.
- ^
Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006.; "The Diversity of Cheek Teeth"; The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed November 26, 2011 at
http://animaldiversity.org
.
- ^
Conroy CJ, Cook JA. 1999. MtDNA evidence for repeated pulses of speciation within arvicoline and murid rodents. J. Mammal. Evol. 6:221-245.
- ^
a
b
Galewski T, Tilak M, Sanchez S, Chevret P, Paradis E, Douzery EJP. 2006.
The evolutionary radiation of Arvicolinae rodents (voles and lemmings): relative contribution of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA phylogenies. BMC Evol. Biol. 6:80
.
- ^
Triant DA, DeWoody JA. 2008. Molecular analyses of mitochondrial pseudogenes within the nuclear genome of arvicoline rodents. Genetica 132:21-33.
- ^
Lin Y-H, Waddell PJ, Penny D. 2002. Pika and vole mitochondrial genomes increase support for both rodent monophyly and glires. Gene 294:119-129.
- ^
Robovsky J, Ricankova V, Zrzavy J. 2008. Phylogeny of Arvicolinae (Mammalia, Cricetidae): utility of morphological and molecular data sets in a recently radiating clade. Zool. Scripta 37:571?590.
- ^
Abramson, Natalia I.; Bodrov, Semyon Yu; Bondareva, Olga V.; Genelt-Yanovskiy, Evgeny A.; Petrova, Tatyana V. (2021-11-19).
"A mitochondrial genome phylogeny of voles and lemmings (Rodentia: Arvicolinae): Evolutionary and taxonomic implications"
.
PLOS ONE
.
16
(11): e0248198.
Bibcode
:
2021PLoSO..1648198A
.
doi
:
10.1371/journal.pone.0248198
.
ISSN
1932-6203
.
PMC
8604340
.
PMID
34797834
.
- ^
a
b
Mammal Diversity Database (2023). "Mammal Diversity Database (Version 1.11) [Data set]".
Zenodo
.
doi
:
10.5281/zenodo.7830771
.
- ^
"
Alexandromys alpinus
"
.
ASM Mammal Diversity Database
.
American Society of Mammalogists
.
- ^
"
Alexandromys shantaricus
"
.
ASM Mammal Diversity Database
.
American Society of Mammalogists
.
- ^
"
Chionomys lasistanius
"
.
ASM Mammal Diversity Database
.
American Society of Mammalogists
.
- ^
"
Chionomys stekolnikovi
"
.
ASM Mammal Diversity Database
.
American Society of Mammalogists
.
- ^
Golenishchev, F. N.; Malikov, V. G.; Bannikova, A. A.; Zykov, A. E.; Yi?it, N.; Colak, E. (2022).
"Diversity of snow voles of the "nivalis" group (
Chionomys
, Arvicolinae, Rodentia) in the eastern part of the range with a description of a new species"
.
Russian Journal of Theriology
.
21
(1): 1?12.
doi
:
10.15298/rusjtheriol.21.1.01
.
S2CID
250649779
.
External links
[
edit
]