Rio Grande ground squirrel | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Sciuridae |
Genus: | Ictidomys |
Species: | I. parvidens
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Binomial name | |
Ictidomys parvidens (
Mearns, 1896)
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Synonyms | |
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The Rio Grande ground squirrel (Ictidomys parvidens) is a species of squirrel in the family Sciuridae. It is found in the south-western United States ( Texas and New Mexico) and in north-eastern Mexico.
The Rio Grande ground squirrel was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Mexican ground squirrel and, along with the other species of the genus Ictidomys, was classified in the much larger genus Spermophilus, [1] until 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. As a result, Ictidomys is now considered as a genus in its own right. [3]