Evolution and Classification of the Pocket Gophers of the Subfamily GeomyinaeRussell, Robert J.
Science
Evolution and Classification of the Pocket Gophers of the Subfamily Geomyinae
Russell, Robert J.
Pocket gophers
The genus _Pappogeomys_ is not known from Pleistocene deposits older
than the Wisconsin glaciation, but a pre-Pleistocene occurrence in the
Benson beds of Arizona (see discussion of the Pliocene above) shows
that _Pappogeomys_ had been differentiated by late Pliocene time.
The absence of _Pappogeomys_, beginning in the early Pleistocene and
continuing well into the late Pleistocene, is attributed to the
southern distribution of the genus, where its range probably was
centered on the Central Plateau of México. The paucity of early and
middle Pleistocene deposits from this critical region prevents any
definite statements about phyletic development within the genus. All
of the late Pleistocene records pertain to the subgenus _Cratogeomys_
(long in use as a generic name but in the present paper reduced to
subgeneric rank in the genus _Pappogeomys_). Schultz and Howard
(1935:280) found _Cratogeomys_ [= _Pappogeomys_] _castanops_ in
Burnett Cave in the Guadalupe Mountains of south-central New Mexico.
The Burnett deposits are probably late Wisconsin (see Schultz and
Tanner, 1957:75, for discussion of the age of these deposits based
on carbon-14 tests). These writers (_loc. cit._) also referred
the mandible of a small pocket gopher to the genus _Pappogeomys_
[= subgenus _Pappogeomys_]. However, neither genera nor subgenera of
the tribe Geomyini can be distinguished on the basis of their inferior
dentitions. Judging from the distribution of the modern geomyines, it
seems unlikely that the subgenus _Pappogeomys_ has occurred beyond its
present range in the late Pleistocene; therefore the small mandible is
most likely that of a young individual of _Pappogeomys castanops_.
Russell (1960:543) referred specimens collected at San Josecito Cave
in Nuevo León, México, to the group of small subspecies _Cratogeomys_
[= _Pappogeomys_] _castanops_. Also, Russell (_loc. cit._) identified
a rostral fragment as of the genus _Cratogeomys_ [= subgenus
_Cratogeomys_] although the fragment had a combination of features
different than in any named species of the genus; he did not name the
fragment as a new species, preferring to wait for additional material
that could clarify its taxonomic relationships.
Hibbard (1955a:52-53) identified _Cratogeomys_ [= _Pappogeomys_]
_tylorhinus_ from the Becerra Superior deposits in the valley of
Tequixquic in the northern part of the state of México. The Wisconsin
age of these beds suggests an earlier Pleistocene derivation of the
_gymnurus_-group of species.
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