WordNet
- a mammal family of true squirrels including: ground squirrels; marmots; chipmunks; flying squirrels; spermophiles (同)family Sciuridae
- the fur of a squirrel
- a kind of arboreal rodent having a long bushy tail
- a burrowing ground squirrel of western America and Asia; has cheek pouches and a light and dark stripe running down the body
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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2014/05/11 22:28:25」(JST)
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This article is about the squirrel family (Sciuridae) as a whole. For other uses, see Squirrel (disambiguation).
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Various members of the family Sciuridae
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
| Kingdom: | Animalia | |||||||||
| Phylum: | Chordata | |||||||||
| Class: | Mammalia | |||||||||
| Order: | Rodentia | |||||||||
| Suborder: | Sciuromorpha | |||||||||
| Family: | Sciuridae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817 |
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| Subfamilies and tribes | ||||||||||
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Squirrels belong to family Sciuridae of small or medium-size rodents. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots (including woodchucks), flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and have been introduced to Australia.[1] The earliest known squirrels date from the Eocene and are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormouse among living rodent families.
Contents
- 1 Etymology
- 2 Characteristics
- 3 Behavior
- 3.1 Feeding
- 4 Taxonomy
- 5 See also
- 6 Notes
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Etymology
The word "squirrel", first specified in 1327, comes from Anglo-Norman esquirel from the Old French escurel, the reflex of a Latin word sciurus. This Latin word was borrowed from the Ancient Greek word σκίουρος, skiouros, which means shadow-tailed, referring to the bushy appendage possessed by many of its members.[2][3]
The native Old English word for the squirrel, ācweorna, survived only into Middle English (as aquerne) before being replaced.[4] The Old English word is of Common Germanic origin, and cognates used by other countries to name the squirrel include the German Eichhhörnchen (diminuitive of Eichhorn, which is not used), the Norwegian ikorn/ekorn, the Dutch eekhoorn, the Swedish ekorre and the Danish egern.
Characteristics
Reaching out for food on a garden bird feeder, this squirrel can rotate its hind feet, allowing it to descend a tree head-first.
Squirrels are generally small animals, ranging in size from the African pygmy squirrel at 7–10 cm (2.8–3.9 in) in length and just 10 g (0.35 oz) in weight, to the Alpine marmot, which is 53–73 cm (21–29 in) long and weighs from 5 to 8 kg (11 to 18 lb). Squirrels typically have slender bodies with bushy tails and large eyes. In general, their fur is soft and silky, although much thicker in some species than others. The color of squirrels is highly variable between—and often even within—species.[5]
In general, the hind limbs are longer than the fore limbs, and they have four or five toes on each paw. Their paws include an often poorly developed thumb, and have soft pads on the undersides.[6] The eastern gray squirrel is one of very few mammalian species that can descend a tree head-first. It does this by turning its feet so the claws of its hind paws are backward-pointing and can grip the tree bark.[7]
Squirrels live in almost every habitat from tropical rainforest to semiarid desert, avoiding only the high polar regions and the driest of deserts. They are predominantly herbivorous, subsisting on seeds and nuts, but many will eat insects and even small vertebrates.[8]
As their large eyes indicate, in general squirrels have an excellent sense of vision, which is especially important for tree-dwelling species. They also have very versatile and sturdy claws for grasping and climbing.[9] Many also have a good sense of touch, with vibrissae on their heads and limbs.[6]
Skull of an Oriental giant squirrel (genus Ratufa) - note the classic sciuromorphous shape of the anterior zygomatic region.
The teeth of sciurids follow the typical rodent pattern, with large gnawing incisors that grow throughout life, and grinding cheek teeth set back behind a wide gap, or diastema. The typical dental formula for sciurids is 1.0.1.31.0.1.3[citation needed]
The lifespan of the gray squirrel is approximately six years. Most urban squirrels do not reach their first birthday. This is due not to predators but rather to automobiles. Compare this to its rural counterpart, which often perishes from lack of food.[10][dubious – discuss]
Behavior
Several species of squirrels have melanistic phases. In large parts of United States and Canada, the most common variety seen in urban areas is the melanistic form of the eastern gray squirrel.
Squirrels breed once or twice a year and give birth to a varying number of young after three to six weeks, depending on species. The young are born naked, toothless, and blind. In most species of squirrel, only the female looks after the young, which are weaned at around six to ten weeks of age and become sexually mature at the end of their first year. In general, ground-dwelling species are social animals, often living in well-developed colonies, but the tree-dwelling species are more solitary.[6]
Ground and tree squirrels are typically diurnal or crepuscular,[11] while flying squirrels tend to be nocturnal—except for lactating flying squirrels and their offspring, which have a period of diurnality during the summer.[12]
Feeding
Squirrel eating a fruit in Manyara National Park, Tanzania
Squirrel eating a peanut.
The Indian palm squirrel is the most common type of squirrel found in India.
The Squirrel from the Jungle of Alwar, Rajasthan
Squirrels cannot digest cellulose, so they must rely on foods rich in protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In temperate regions, early spring is the hardest time of year for squirrels, because buried nuts begin to sprout and are no longer available for the squirrel to eat, and new food sources have not become available yet. During these times, squirrels rely heavily on the buds of trees. Squirrels' diets consist primarily of a wide variety of plants, including nuts, seeds, conifer cones, fruits, fungi, and green vegetation. However, some squirrels also consume meat, especially when faced with hunger.[8] Squirrels have been known to eat insects, eggs, small birds, young snakes, and smaller rodents. Indeed, some tropical species have shifted almost entirely to a diet of insects.[13]
Predatory behavior has been noted by various species of ground squirrels, in particular the thirteen-lined ground squirrel.[14] For example, Bailey, a scientist in the 1920s, observed a thirteen-lined ground squirrel preying upon a young chicken.[15] Wistrand reported seeing this same species eating a freshly killed snake.[16] Whitaker examined the stomachs of 139 thirteen-lined ground squirrels and found bird flesh in four of the specimens and the remains of a short-tailed shrew in one;[17] Bradley, examining white-tailed antelope squirrels' stomachs, found at least 10% of his 609 specimens' stomachs contained some type of vertebrate, mostly lizards and rodents.[18] Morgart observed a white-tailed antelope squirrel capturing and eating a silky pocket mouse.[19]
Taxonomy
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Grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) of the Ratufinae
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Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) of the Pteromyini
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Prevost's squirrel (Callosciurus prevosti) of the Callosciurini
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Unstriped ground squirrel (Xerus rutilus) of the Xerini
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Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) of the Marmotini
A domestic squirrel.
The living squirrels are divided into five subfamilies, with about 58 genera and some 285 species.[20] The oldest squirrel fossil, Hesperopetes, dates back to the Chadronian (late Eocene, about 40–35 million years ago) and is similar to modern flying squirrels.[21]
A variety of fossil squirrels, from the latest Eocene to the Miocene, could not be assigned with certainty to any living lineage. At least some of these probably were variants of the oldest basal "protosquirrels" (in the sense that they lacked the full range of living squirrels' autapomorphies). The distribution and diversity of such ancient and ancestral forms suggest the squirrels as a group may have originated in North America.[22]
Apart from these sometimes little-known fossil forms, the phylogeny of the living squirrels is fairly straightforward. The three main lineages are the Ratufinae (Oriental giant squirrels), Sciurillinae and all other subfamilies. The Ratufinae contain a mere handful of living species in tropical Asia. The neotropical pygmy squirrel of tropical South America is the sole living member of the Sciurillinae. The third lineage, by far the largest, has a near-cosmopolitan distribution. This further supports the hypothesis that the common ancestor of all squirrels, living and fossil, lived in North America, as these three most ancient lineages seem to have radiated from there; if squirrels had originated in Eurasia, for example, one would expect quite ancient lineages in Africa, but African squirrels seem to be of more recent origin.[22]
The main group of squirrels also can be split into three subgroups, which yield the remaining subfamilies. The Sciurinae contains the flying squirrels (Pteromyini) and the Sciurini, which among others contains the American tree squirrels; the former have often been considered a separate subfamily, but are now seen as a tribe of the Sciurinae. The pine squirrels (Tamiasciurus), on the other hand, are usually included with the main tree squirrel lineage, but appear to be about as distinct as the flying squirrels; hence, they are sometimes considered a distinct tribe, Tamiasciurini.[23]
Eastern gray squirrel in a tree
Squirrel eating grains
Two of the three subfamilies are of about equal size, containing between nearly 70 and 80 species each; the third is about twice as large. The Sciurinae contains arboreal (tree-living) squirrels, mainly of the Americas and to a lesser extent Eurasia. The Callosciurinae is most diverse in tropical Asia and contains squirrels that are also arboreal, but have a markedly different habitus and appear more "elegant", an effect enhanced by their often very colorful fur. The Xerinae—the largest subfamily—are made up from the mainly terrestrial (ground-living) forms and include the large marmots and the popular prairie dogs, among others, as well as the tree squirrels of Africa; they tend to be more gregarious than other squirrels, which do not usually live together in close-knit groups.[22]
- Basal and incertae sedis Sciuridae (all fossil)
- Hesperopetes
- Kherem
- Lagrivea
- Oligosciurus
- Plesiosciurus
- Prospermophilus
- Sciurion
- Similisciurus
- Sinotamias
- Vulcanisciurus
- Subfamily Cedromurinae (fossil)
- Subfamily Ratufinae – Oriental giant squirrels (1 genus, 4 species)
- Subfamily Sciurillinae – neotropical pygmy squirrel (monotypic)
- Subfamily Sciurinae
- Tribe Sciurini – tree squirrels (5 genera, about 38 species)
- Tribe Pteromyini – true flying squirrels (15 genera, about 45 species)
- Subfamily Callosciurinae – Asian ornate squirrels
- Tribe Callosciurini (13 genera, nearly 60 species)
- Tribe Funambulini palm squirrels (1 genus, 5 species)
- Subfamily Xerinae – terrestrial squirrels
- Tribe Xerini – spiny squirrels (3 genera, 6 species)
- Tribe Protoxerini (6 genera, about 50 species)
- Tribe Marmotini – ground squirrels, marmots, chipmunks, prairie dogs, etc. (6 genera, about 90 species)
See also
| Mammals portal |
- American red squirrel
- Animal track
- Fox squirrel
- Purple squirrel
- Red squirrel
- Squirrel relationship with humans
- Western gray squirrel
Notes
- ^ Seebeck, J. H. "Sciuridae". Fauna of Australia. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
- ^ "squirrel, n.". The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd. ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
- ^ Whitaker & Elman (1980): 370
- ^ "Squirrel". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ Tree Squirrels, Wildlife Online, 23 November 2010.
- ^ a b c Milton (1984)
- ^ Jenkins, Farish (1974). Primate Locomotion. New York: Academic Press. p. 61. ISBN 0123840503.
- ^ a b Squirrel Place - squirrels.org - Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- ^ "Squirrel" - HowStuffWorks
- ^ Squirrel History, squirrels.org
- ^ "Red & Gray Squirrels in Massachusetts". MassWildlife. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
- ^ Törmälä, Timo; Vuorinen, Hannu; Hokkanen, Heikki (1980). "Timing of circadian activity in the flying squirrel in central Finland". Acta Theriologica 25 (32–42): 461–474. doi:10.4098/at.arch.80-42. Retrieved 11 July 2007. Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
- ^ Richard W. Thorington, Katie Ferrell - Squirrels: the animal answer guide, JHU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8018-8402-0, ISBN 978-0-8018-8402-3, p. 75.
- ^ Friggens, M. (2002). "Carnivory on Desert Cottontails by Texas Antelope Ground Squirrels". The Southwestern Naturalist 47 (1): 132–133. doi:10.2307/3672818. JSTOR 3672818.
- ^ Bailey, B. (1923). "Meat-eating propensities of some rodents of Minnesota". Journal of Mammalogy 4: 129.
- ^ Wistrand, E.H. (1972). "Predation on a Snake by Spermophilus tridecemlineatus". American Midland Naturalist 88 (2): 511–512. doi:10.2307/2424389. JSTOR 2424389.
- ^ Whitaker, J.O. (1972). "Food and external parasites of Spermophilus tridecemlineatus in Vigo County, Indiana". Journal of Mammalogy 53 (3): 644–648. doi:10.2307/1379067. JSTOR 1379067.
- ^ Bradley, W. G. (1968). "Food habits of the antelope ground squirrel in southern Nevada". Journal of Mammalogy 49 (1): 14–21. doi:10.2307/1377723. JSTOR 1377723.
- ^ Morgart, J. R. (May 1985). "Carnivorous behavior by a white-tailed antelope ground squirrel Ammospermophilus leucurus". The Southwestern Naturalist 30 (2): 304–305. doi:10.2307/3670745. JSTOR 3670745.
- ^ Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. (2011). "Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness". Zootaxa 3148: 56–60.
- ^ Emry, R. J.; Korth, W. W. (2007). "A new genus of squirrel (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from the mid-Cenozoic of North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27 (3): 693. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[693:ANGOSR]2.0.CO;2.
- ^ a b c Steppan & Hamm (2006)
- ^ Steppan et al. (2004), Steppan & Hamm (2006)
References
- Milton, Katherine (1984): [Family Sciuridae]. In: Macdonald, D. (ed.): The Encyclopedia of Mammals: 612–623. Facts on File, New York. ISBN 0-87196-871-1
- Steppan, Scott J. & Hamm, Shawn M. (2006): Tree of Life Web Project – Sciuridae (Squirrels). Version of 13 May 2006. Retrieved 10 December 2007.
- Steppan, S. J.; Storz, B. L.; Hoffmann, R. S. (2004). "Nuclear DNA phylogeny of the squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia) and the evolution of arboreality from c-myc and RAG1". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30 (3): 703–719. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00204-5. PMID 15012949.
- Thorington, R.W. & Hoffmann, R.S. (2005): Family Sciuridae. In: Mammal Species of the World – A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference: 754–818. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
- Whitaker, John O. Jr. & Elman, Robert (1980): The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals (2nd ed.). Alfred Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-50762-2
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sciuridae. |
| Wikispecies has information related to: Sciuridae |
| Look up squirrel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Tree of Life: Sciuridae
- Squirrel Tracks: How to identify squirrel tracks in the wild
- National Geographic link on Squirrels
- List of names of squirrel taxa
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English Journal
- Complete mitochondrial genome of the Eurasian flying squirrel Pteromys volans (Sciuromorpha, Sciuridae) and revision of rodent phylogeny.
- Ryu SH, Kwak MJ, Hwang UW.SourceDepartment of Biology, Teachers College & Institute for Phylogenomics and Evolution, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701, Korea.
- Molecular biology reports.Mol Biol Rep.2013 Feb;40(2):1917-26. doi: 10.1007/s11033-012-2248-x. Epub 2012 Nov 1.
- In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of the Eurasian flying squirrel Pteromys volans (Rodentia, Sciuromorpha, Sciuridae) was sequenced and characterized in detail. The entire mitochondrial genome of P. volans consisted of 16,513 bp and contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, t
- PMID 23114915
- Arthropod parasites of the red-bellied squirrel Callosciurus erythraeus introduced into Argentina.
- Gozzi AC, Guichón ML, Benitez VV, Lareschi M.SourceEcología de Mamíferos Introducidos, Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE), Centros Científicos Tecnológicos (CCT), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), La Plata, Argentina.
- Medical and veterinary entomology.Med Vet Entomol.2012 Dec 16. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.2012.01052.x. [Epub ahead of print]
- The introduction of an exotic species usually modifies parasite-host dynamics by the import of new parasites or the exotic species' acquiral of local parasites. The loss of parasites may determine the outcome of an invasion if the introduced species is liberated from co-evolved parasites in its rang
- PMID 23252828
- Endoparasites of rodents from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Southeastern Bangladesh.
- Fuehrer HP, Baumann TA, Riedl J, Treiber M, Igel P, Swoboda P, Joachim A, Noedl H.SourceInstitute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine, Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. hans-peter.fuehrer@meduniwien.ac.at
- Wiener klinische Wochenschrift.Wien Klin Wochenschr.2012 Nov;124 Suppl 3:27-30. doi: 10.1007/s00508-012-0237-7. Epub 2012 Oct 13.
- Rodents are a key mammalian group highly successful in adapting to a variety of environments throughout the world and play an important role in many zoonotic cycles. Within this project, the gastrointestinal and extraintestinal parasite fauna of 76 rodents (Muroidea and Sciuridae) was determined in
- PMID 23064859
Japanese Journal
- Habitual bark gleaning by Cambodian striped squirrels Tamiops rodolphii (Rodentia: Sciuridae) in Cat Tien National Park, South Vietnam
- Mammal study 39(2), 73-81, 2014-06
- NAID 40020094336
- Late Pliocene rodents from the Irrawaddy sediments of central Myanmar and their palaeogeographical significance
- Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 13(4), 287-314, 2014-05-23
- NAID 120005625649
- The First Chromosome Analysis and Localization of the Nucleolar Organizer Region of Phayre's Flying Squirrel, Hylopetes phayrei (Rodentia, Sciuridae) in Thailand
- CYTOLOGIA 79(1), 3-14, 2014
- NAID 130004448267
Related Links
- Home page of Sciuridae Online Magazine, with articles and reviews on in-car Sat Nav, Speed Cameras, Baby Seats, Technology, Bluetooth Kits, Nitro cars, and much more! ... Whats' New On The Site? - Latest Updates New ...
- Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships Our understanding of phylogenetic relationships among sciurids has improved greatly in recent years. In 1993 and until recently, family Sciuridae was classified into two subfamilies: Sciurinae, the tree and ground squirrels, and ...
Related Pictures
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★リンクテーブル★
| リンク元 | 「Spermophilus」「リス科」「prairie dog」「chipmunk」「squirrel」 |
「Spermophilus」
「リス科」
「prairie dog」
「chipmunk」
「squirrel」