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Palaeosciurus from Europe is the oldest known ground squirrel species, and it does not seem to be particularly close to any of the two to three living lineages (subtribes) of Marmotini. The oldest fossils are from the Early Oligocene, more than 30 million years ago (Mya), but the genus probably persisted at least until the mid-Miocene, some 15 Mya.
The Pannonian souslik was a medium-sized species of souslik, with an estimated size similar to that of the European souslik. [2] [4] Its skull is estimated to be 42–44 millimetres (1.7–1.7 in) in length, larger than in the European and the speckled souslik, but smaller than large, Asiatic species such as the russet (), yellow and relict ground squirrel (S. relictus).
Franklin's ground squirrel was first described by Joseph Sabine in 1822, who named it in honor of the British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. [3] It was formerly placed in the large ground squirrel genus Spermophilus, in its own subgenus, Poliocitellus, [4] [5] but since DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene has shown Spermophilus to be paraphyletic it is now placed in its own genus.
The thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus), also known as the striped gopher, leopard ground squirrel, and squinny (formerly known as the leopard-spermophile in the age of Audubon), is a species of hibernating ground squirrel that is widely distributed over grasslands and prairies of North America.
Richardson's ground squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii), also known as the dakrat or flickertail, is a North American ground squirrel in the genus Urocitellus.Like a number of other ground squirrels, they are sometimes called prairie dogs or gophers, though the latter name belongs more strictly to the pocket gophers of family Geomyidae, and the former to members of the genus Cynomys.
The California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi), also known as the Beechey ground squirrel, [4] is a common and easily observed ground squirrel of the western United States and the Baja California Peninsula; it is common in Oregon and California and its range has relatively recently extended into Washington and northwestern Nevada.
The round-tailed ground squirrel (Xerospermophilus tereticaudus), known as "Ardillón cola redonda" in Spanish, live in the desert of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. They are called " ground squirrels " because they burrow in loose soil, often under mesquite trees and creosote bushes .
Urocitellus is a genus of ground squirrels.They were previously believed to belong to the much larger genus Spermophilus, but DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene showed that this group was paraphyletic to the prairie dogs and marmots, [2] and could therefore no longer be retained as a single genus.