| Urocitellus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Richardson's ground squirrel in Manitoba | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Tribe: | Marmotini |
| Genus: | Urocitellus Obolenskij, 1927 |
| Type species | |
| Spermophilus eversmanni | |
| Species | |
See text. | |
Urocitellus is a genus of ground squirrels. They were previously believed to belong to the much larger genus Spermophilus , but DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene showed that this group was paraphyletic to the prairie dogs and marmots, [2] [3] and could therefore no longer be retained as a single genus. As a result, Urocitellus is now considered as a genus in its own right. [4]
All but two species are native to the northern and western parts of North America, from California and Minnesota through the north-western United States and western Canada; the Arctic ground squirrel inhabits Arctic terrain on both sides of the Bering Strait, while the long-tailed ground squirrel is exclusively found in Asia. The name of the genus is said to be derived from the Latin uro, meaning "tail" and citellus for "ground squirrel". [4] The proper word for "tail" in classical Latin is cauda. [5] Oura (οὐρά) is the ancient Greek word for "tail". [6]
