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
*_Pliosaccomys wilsoni_ James, 1963. Univ. California Publ. Geol. Sci.,
45:101, June 26. Type from Nettle Springs local fauna of late
Clarendonian (early Pliocene), Ventura County, California.
Tribe THOMOMYINI, new tribe
_Type._--_Thomomys_ Wied-Neuwied, 1839.
_Chronologic and geographic range._--Known from late Pliocene (early
Blancan) to Recent. Known primarily from western North America from
southern Canada south to Central México in Pliocene, Pleistocene and
Recent and in middle and late Pleistocene of Maryland and Florida.
_Diagnosis._--Size small to medium (basilar length exclusive of _T.
bulbivorus_, measuring from approximately 24 to 45, including both
males and females); upper incisors without grooving, excepting fine,
indistinct sulcus rarely near inner margin (grooving more common in
_T. monticola_ than in other Recent species); crowns of cheek teeth
high, rooted and ever-growing; all molars, including M3, monoprismatic
and anteroposteriorly compressed, sometimes (especially in subadults)
having slight inflection on labial side in upper teeth and lingual
side in lower teeth; molars bicolumnar in pre-final stages of wear
(seen in juvenal teeth only), patterns of wear in both upper and lower
molars resembling those of _Pliosaccomys_, except that crowns of m3
and M3 unite into single column in final stages of wear; enamel
pattern interrupted in all cheek teeth, loss occurring only at sides
of each column; transverse enamel blade completely covering posterior
face of both P4 and p4; all upper and lower molars with two transverse
enamel blades, one on anterior surface and one on posterior surface,
of each tooth, including M3; small third plate sometimes persistent on
broad side of tooth, labial side in upper molars and lingual side in
lower molars (_T. bulbivorus_); skull generalized, neither unusually
narrow and deep or broad and flat; usually without marked cresting or
rugosity; masseteric ridge well developed and massive; basitemporal
fossa absent, sometimes shallow depression forming in _T. townsendii_;
pelage soft, never harsh or hispid, covering body with thick coat of
hair; forefoot exceptionally small for fossorial mammal, claws not
especially long; body form remarkably fossorial.
The tribe Thomomyini is monotypic, including only the genus
_Thomomys_.
Genus =Thomomys= Wied-Neuwied
1839. _Thomomys_ Wied-Neuwied, Nova Acta Phys. Med. Acad. Caesar.
Leop.-Carol., 19(1):377.
1836. _Oryctomys_ Eydoux and Gervais (in part), Mag. de Zool., 6:20,
pl. 21. Type: _Oryctomys_ (_Saccophorus_) _bottae_, from
coast of California, probably near Monterey.
1903. _Megascapheus_ Elliot, Field Columb. Mus., Publ. 76, Zool.
Ser., 3(11):190, July 25. Type: _Diplostoma bulbivorum_
Richardson, from Columbia River, probably near Portland, Ore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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