The entoptychines were the dominant and most highly differentiated geomyids of the early and middle Miocene. Nevertheless, they became extinct in the middle Miocene, and the geomyines of that time survived and later gave rise to the modern pocket gophers. Therefore, the early history of the family Geomyidae is characterized by an early radiation and trend toward specialization, followed by survival of the less specialized Geomyinae and extinction of the more specialized Entoptychinae. Entoptychid Radiation The most abundant geomyids of the early and middle Miocene, the Entoptychinae, consisted of at least 24 species (see Wood, 1936:4-25) classified in four genera: _Pleurolicus_, _Gregorymys_, _Grangerimus_, and _Entoptychus_. The genera were essentially contemporaneous (see Figure 3). Even so, the subfamily was morphologically varied, pointing to an earlier origin in the Oligocene (actually a part of the John Day Fauna, including _Pleurolicus_ may be correlated with late Oligocene Whitneyian age) followed by a relatively rapid radiation including all four genera in the early Miocene. Two genera, _Pleurolicus_ and _Gregorymys_, continued into the Middle Miocene (Hemingfordian). This divergence, specialization, and subsequent radiation suggest that the entoptychines evolved into a new major adaptive zone, in the sense described by Simpson (1945:199-206). The radiation is correlated geographically and temporally with the southward retreat of the Neotropical flora of the Tertiary from the western United States and southward movement of the Arctic flora of the Tertiary (see Axlerod, 1950; Berry, 1937:31-46; Chaney, 1947:139-148; and Kendeigh, 1961:280-283). In the early Tertiary the Neotropical-tertiary geoflora occurred northward to at least 49° latitude in western North America, and the boreal Arctic-tertiary flora was restricted to a circumpolar zone. The southward and eastward shift of the Neotropical-tertiary flora, associated with the drying and chilling of the continent, began in the middle or late Oligocene and was concurrent with the divergence and radiation of the Entoptychinae. Beginning in late Oligocene and continuing at least into middle Miocene, most of the region in which the entoptychines occurred was occupied by the Arcto-tertiary geoflora of which the temperate forest division contributed the dominate plant associations. The maples, chestnuts, dogwoods, beeches, walnuts, oaks, elms, birches, and sycamores of that flora were the forerunners of today's eastern deciduous forest. It is my view that the entoptychines became adapted to the conditions of this paleoecological environment and radiated rapidly in the Arikareean when the major change occurred in climax vegetation. The ancestral stock of the Geomyinae was not so successful in the Arcto-tertiary climax, and most of it probably was displaced southward along with the tropical flora.