Molecular Systematics of the Sciuridae

小行星9726855 了解啮齿动物，特别是松鼠（松鼠科）的进化关系，是重建哺乳动物进化过程的基础。 啮齿类动物占现存哺乳动物的近一半，在形态上，松鼠相对原始，这使得它们与其他啮齿类动物的关系在确定啮齿类动物的进化历史方面至关重要。 松鼠科是很好的限制;在其生态多样性，它的身体大小范围广泛，因此是一个丰富的进化模式的来源。 其良好的化石记录和广泛的地理分布进一步允许进化模式被放置在时间和地理背景。 飞鼠、侏儒松鼠、树松鼠和地松鼠的系统发育关系以前从未使用单一数据集进行过评估。 路易斯·罗斯（V. Louise Roth）和约翰·M.美世，DNA序列数据将被用来重建松鼠家族的基因。 初步研究表明，松鼠之间的关系在许多基本方面与系统生物学家先前假设的不同。 这项工作应该提供一个新的框架来解释这组啮齿动物的变异，澄清哺乳动物多样性的一个主要组成部分的进化历史。

9726855 Roth An understanding of the evolutionary relationships of rodents, and of squirrels (family Sciruidae) in particular, is fundamental to reconstructing the course of mammalian evolution. Rodents constitute nearly half the extant species of mammals, and morphologically, sciurids are relatively primitive, which renders their relationships to other families of rodents of key importance in determining the evolutionary history of the Rodentia. The squirrel family is well circumscribed; diverse in its ecology, it ranges widely in body size, and is thus a rich source of evolutionary patterns. Its good fossil record and wide geographic distribution further permit evolutionary patterns to be placed in temporal and geographic contexts. Phylogenetic relationships of flying squirrels, pygmy squirrels, tree squirrels, and ground squirrels had never before been evaluated together using a single data set. In this research by V. Louise Roth and John M. Mercer, DNA sequence data will be used to reconstruct the geneaology of the squirrel family. Preliminary studies suggest that the relationships among squirrels are, in many fundamental ways, different from what has previously been assumed by systematic biologists. This work should provide a new framework for interpreting variation in this group of rodents, clarifying evolutionary history in a major component of mammalian diversity.