Phylogenetic Relationships among Six Flying Squirrel Genera, Inferred from Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Gene Sequences.

Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of woolly flying squirrel (Rodentia: Sciuridae), inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences

“…The grouping of Glaucomys and Hylopetes observed in this study is in consistent with what has been observed by Mercer and Roth (2003). Considering the molecular analyses made by Oshida et al (2000b) and Herron et al (2004), it is well established that the Glaucomys-Hylopetes clade is specifically allied with the Belomys-Trogopterus clade. However, the tie between these two clades is not universally clear-cut because they were clustered into different groups based on the morphological data (Thorington and Darrow, 2000) and the molecular data (Mercer and Roth, 2003).…”

“…Our results strongly support their hypotheses. Also, it is noteworthy that in all analyses Pteromys is consistently basal to other flying squirrels, in agreement with the recent findings of Herron et al (2004), but inconsistent with the results of Oshida et al (2000b) and Mercer and Roth (2003). These discrepancies suggest that the phylogenetic topology of flying squirrels may be different when different outgroup or genes were used for phylogenetic reconstruction.…”

“…The Eupetaurus-stock migrated to its current geographical distribution when Petaurista was a dominant flying squirrel throughout the Eurasian Continent during the Pleistocene (Oshida et al, 2000b). Before the glacial eustacy, eastern and western trans-Himalayan Eupetaurus diverged from the ancestral Eupetaurus and migrated independently to their present localities after the closure of the Tethys Sea at the end of Miocene.…”

“…At the same time, with the retreating of glaciers and the further uplift of the Himalayas, some species of flying squirrels may have extended its distribution to northern or central parts of the Eurasia, such as the ancestor of Pteromys (Oshida et al, 2000b) and P. xanthotis, and some were restricted to the southern parts of the Eurasian continent (i.e., Hylopetes). This inference implies that the divergence of the eastern and western Eupetaurus appears to be subject to the glacial events and the uplift of the Himalayas and Qinghai-Tibet plateau due to tectonic activities of the Cenozoic.…”

Systematic Review of Endemic Sulawesi Squirrels (Rodentia, Sciuridae), with Descriptions of New Species of Associated Sucking Lice (Insecta, Anoplura), and Phylogenetic and Zoogeographic Assessments of Sciurid Lice

“…Some examples of relatively recent research results producing fresh insights into phylogenetic relationships within and among genera cover flying squirrels (Oshida et al, 2000a(Oshida et al, , 2000bOshida et al, 2001a;Thorington et al, 2002;Yu et al, 2004Yu et al, , 2006Arbogast, 2007); Japanese species of Sciuridae (Oshida et al, 1996); species of Sciurus (Oshida and Masuda, 2000), Callosciurus (Oshida et al, 2001b), and Dremomys (Li et al, 2008); ground squirrels (Harrison et al, 2003;Herron et al, 2004;Helgen et al, 2009); marmots (Steppan et al, 1999); and chipmunks (Banbury and Spicer, 2007).…”