Subfamily Murinae Illiger, 1815 . Abh. Phys. Klasse K.-Preuss Akad. Wiss. Berlin, for 1804-11, p. 46,129 [1815].

SYNONYMS: Anisomyini, Conilurinae, Hydromyinae, Murina, Phloeomyinae, Pseudomyinae, Rhynchomyinae .

COMMENTS: Diagnosis, characteristics, and contents of subfamily generally as presented by Carleton and Musser (1984). No general tribal arrangement of genera is available except for provincial groupings (Conilurini and Hydromyini for Australian species [summarized in Watts and Aslin, 1981] and Anisomyini for some New Guinea genera [Lidicker and Brylski, 1987]). Acomys and Uranomys would be excluded from the subfamily by some (see those accounts). Comparative chromosomal data provided in phylogenetic framework and other contexts for European species by Zima and Kràl (1984a), for some Asian groups by Markvong et al. (1973), Raman and Sharma (1977), Gadi and Sharma (1983), and Cao and Tran (1984), for African species by Robbins and Baker (1978), for Australian forms by Baverstock et al. (1977c-e, 1983a, b), for New Guinea species by Donnellan (1987), and for murines in general by ViegasPequignot et al. (1983, 1985, 1986). Phylogenetic relationships among Australian species based on biochemical results reported by Baverstock et al. (1977 a, b, 1980) and Watts et al. (1992), those among other species reported by Iskandar and Bonhomme (1984) and Bonhomme et al. (1985). DNA-DNA hybridization results reported in phylogenetic context by Catzeflis (1990) and Catzeflis et al. (1987). Amplification of DNA (LI) in relationship to murine divergence from other muroids reported by Pascale et al. (1990). Comparative data on hair morphology (Keogh, 1985), soft palate topography (Eisentraut, 1969a; Foiling, 1992), and digestive system anatomy (Perrin and Curtis, 1980) provided results for phylogenetic analyses. The discrepency between the relativley rapid divergence of murine taxa as revealed by fossils and the much slower rates indicated by molecular data is reconciled by Jaeger et al. (1986) by postulating accelerated rates of evolution for certain proteins and a higher rate of nucleotide substitution in murines than ordinarily seen in other eutherians.