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Family of rodents From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sminthidae is a family of mouse-like jumping rodents. They are represented by only one extant genus, Sicista, represented by 19 species found throughout most of Eurasia, from central Europe east to Siberia, and south to southern China. However, they were much more diverse and had a much wider range in prehistoric times, having multiple genera and being found not only in Eurasia but also throughout North America, where they existed up to the early Pleistocene. They have a well-attested fossil record which dates as far back as the early Oligocene.[1]
| Sminthidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Northern birch mouse (Sicista betulina) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Superfamily: | Dipodoidea |
| Family: | Sminthidae Brandt, 1855 |
| Genera | |
|
Sicista | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Sicistinae Allen, 1901 | |
They were formerly classified as the subfamily Sicistinae in the family Dipodidae alongside the jerboas and jumping mice, but phylogenetic evidence supports all three of these belonging to distinct families, thus leaving only the jerboas in Dipodidae.[2]
These extinct genera are definitively known:[1][4][5]
The Eocene genera Primisminthus and Banyuesminthus could represent even older members of Sminthidae, although other studies speculate that they may be basal dipodoids.[1]
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