Anterior surface of incisors broad and flat, always smooth on lower teeth, but either smooth or grooved on upper teeth depending on taxon; cheek teeth hypsodont, becoming progressively higher crowned in modern groups, rooted in primitive groups (late? Oligocene to middle Pliocene), rootless and ever-growing in modern groups (late Pliocene to Recent); upper and lower premolars persistently bicolumnar; upper and lower molars bicolumnar only in primitive groups (late? Oligocene and early Miocene), becoming progressively monocolumnar in advanced groups (early Pliocene to Recent), primitive bicolumnar pattern being retained on occlusal surface only in early stages of ontogeny and in third molar throughout life; enamel pattern of occlusal surface of cheek teeth based on sextituberculate prototype (see Wood and Wilson, 1936:388-391), having cusps arranged in two transverse rows of three cusps each, excepting three anterior cusps of premolars that are arranged in trefoil, especially on p4 (sometimes only one or two, rather than three, cusps develop in a particular set, especially in p4), conules absent; protostyle and endostyle in upper teeth and protostylid and hypostylid in lower teeth formed from cingulum; cusps of each row uniting with wear into transverse enamel lophs (or lophids), each tooth having two lophs, one on anterior column, protoloph and protolophid, and one on posterior column, hypoloph and hypolophid, that unite with additional wear forming continuous enamel band; enamel lacking on sides of each column in advanced lineages, thereby restricting enamel to anterior and posterior walls; with extreme reduction, posterior plates of upper teeth and, more commonly, anterior plates of lower molars, missing. Dental formula: 1/1, 0/0, 1/1, 3/3. Key to the Subfamilies of Geomyidae A Angular process of ramus mostly below alveolar level of mandibular tooth-row; pattern of premolar like that of molars, consisting of two subequal crests united at one or both margins of tooth; molars persistently bicolumnar; molariform teeth always rooted. Subfamily Entoptychinae p. 513 A´ Angular process of ramus mostly above level of mandibular tooth-row; pattern of permolar unlike that of molars, consisting of two prisms differing in size and united at their mid-points but never at either margin; molars progressively monocolumnar, except for early Miocene forms; molariform teeth rooted only in primitive genera (late? Oligocene to middle Pliocene), and rootless and ever-growing in later genera (late Pliocene to Recent). Subfamily Geomyinae p. 514 Subfamily ENTOPTYCHINAE Miller and Gidley, 1918