System Atics of the Holarctic Chipmunks (Tamias)

Molecular Phylogeny of the Chipmunks Inferred from Mitochondrial Cytochrome b and Cytochrome Oxidase II Gene Sequences

“…In particular, in some data sets N. m. operarius and N. m. consobrinus have appeared to group outside of the rest of the N. minimus taxa (White, 1953b;Nadler et al, 1969Nadler et al, , 1977Nadler et al, , 1985Sutton and Nadler, 1969;Levenson et al, 1985). We demonstrated in our COII phylogeny that N. m. operarius (Colorado) formed a monophyletic relationship with the rest of the N. minimus species plus N. panamintinus and N. quadrimaculatus (Piaggio and Spicer, 2000).…”

“…The systematics of chipmunks has undergone many revisions based on bacular, morphological, allozyme, chromosomal, and host-ectoparasite data sets (White, 1953a;Nadler and Block, 1962;Nadler, 1964;Sutton and Nadler, 1969;Nadler et al, 1977;Levenson and Hoffmann, 1984;Levenson et al, 1985;Oshida and Yoshida, 1994;Jameson, 1999). The results of these studies have focused debate mainly over which species is most ancestral, where this ancestor arose, and how it dispersed.…”

“…Hafner (1984) analyzed allozyme data and supported the classification into two distinct genera. Most recently, Levenson et al (1985) analyzed electrophoretic data, cranial morphology, and external characters and concluded that there should be only one genus, Tamias, with three subgenera, Eutamias (T. sibiricus), Tamias (T. striatus), and Neotamias (rest of the species).…”

“…There have been diverse attempts to determine the patterns of evolution, dispersal, and relatedness among these taxa. The different data sets have generated varying conclusions about the systematics of chipmunks, ranging from the currently recognized single genus (Tamias) with three subgenera, to previous designations that included two separate genera with one genus being further subdivided into two subgenera, to the designation of three separate genera (Tamias, Neotamias, and Eutamias) for all chipmunk species (Allen, 1891;Howell, 1929;Ellerman, 1940;White, 1953a;Nadler, 1964;Nadler et al, 1969Nadler et al, , 1977Nadler et al, , 1985Ellis and Maxson, 1979;Hafner, 1984;Levenson et al, 1985;Jameson, 1999). We investigated the taxonomy of this group by generating a molecular phylogeny based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).…”

Towards a uniform nomenclature for ground squirrels: the status of the Holarctic chipmunks

“…Although studies based on immunology, karyology, and electrophoresis offered inconclusive and sometimes conflicting evidence of chipmunk sister groups (Hight et al 1974, Nadler et al 1977, Levenson et al 1985, DNA sequence analyses have reliably recovered the three groups of chipmunks as distinct and monophyletic (Piaggio and Spicer 2000, Herron et al 2004, Reid et al 2012. Different phylogenetic methods and datasets applied to chipmunk lineages tend to recover different sister pairs (Ellis and Maxson 1979, Levenson et al 1985, Herron et al 2004, indicating a quasi-trichotomy. The ectoparasite complements of fleas and sucking lice infesting the North American lineages Tamias and Neotamias are exclusive and non-overlapping, suggesting that neither has been derived from the other and both have been long separated (Jameson 1999).…”