The Mylagaulidae or mylagaulids are an extinct clade of sciuromorph rodents nested within the family

Aplodontiidae The family Aplodontiidae also known as Aplodontidae, Haplodontiidae or Haploodontini is traditionally classified as the sole extant family of the suborder Protrogomorpha. It may be the sister family of the Sciuridae. There are fossils from the ...

. They are known from the

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The oldest member is the Late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

'' Trilaccogaulus montanensis'' that lived some 29 million years ago (Mya), and the youngest was ''

Ceratogaulus hatcheri Horned gophers are extinct rodents from the genus ''Ceratogaulus'', a member of the extinct fossorial rodent clade Mylagaulidae. ''Ceratogaulus'' is the only known rodent genus with horn (anatomy), horns, and is the smallest known horned mammal. ...

''—formerly in the invalid genus "''Epigaulus"'' —which was found barely into the Pliocene, some 5 Mya.Hopkins (2005)

Systematics

Three

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

are recognized. The taxonomy of '' Galbreathia'' is not resolved; it might belong in Mylagaulinae, but lacks the characteristic

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

ies. Promylagaulinae *Genus '' Crucimys'' *Genus '' Promylagaulus'' *Genus '' Trilaccogaulus'' *Genus '' Simpligaulus'' Mesogaulinae *Genus '' Mesogaulus'' - includes ''Mylagaulodon'' Mylagaulinae *Genus '' Alphagaulus'' (

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

) *Genus ''

Ceratogaulus Horned gophers are extinct rodents from the genus ''Ceratogaulus'', a member of the extinct fossorial rodent clade Mylagaulidae. ''Ceratogaulus'' is the only known rodent genus with horns, and is the smallest known horned mammal. ''Ceratogaulus' ...

'' - includes "''Epigaulus"'' *Genus '' Hesperogaulus'' *Genus ''

Mylagaulus ''Mylagaulus'' is an extinct genus of rodents in the family Mylagaulidae. ''Mylagaulus'' lived in the Americas during the middle to late Miocene. The genus contains the following species: *''M. cambridgensis'' *''M. cornusaulax'' Czaplewski, 20 ...

'' *Genus ''Notogaulus'' *Genus '' Pterogaulus'' *Genus '' Umbogaulus'' '' incertae sedis'' * Genus '' Galbreathia'' - basal in Mylagaulinae?

Footnotes

References

* (2005): The evolution of fossoriality and the adaptive role of horns in the Mylagaulidae (Mammalia: Rodentia). '' Proc. R. Soc. B'' 272(1573): 1705–1713. PDF fulltext
* (1997): ''Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level''. Columbia University Press. Prehistoric rodent families Chattian first appearances Zanclean extinctions {{paleo-rodent-stub