Subfamily Spalacinae Gray, 1821 . London Med. Repos., 15:303.

SYNONYMS: Aspalacidae .

COMMENTS: Taxonomy and distribution reviewed by Ognev (1963a) and Corbet (1978c, 1984); subfamily monographed by Topachevskii (1969). For an introduction to morphology, taxonomy, and paleontology of European species, see Savie (1982a) and Kivanc (1988). Carleton and Musser (1984) provided a diagnosis of the subfamily and summarized general characters, distribution, taxonomy, and fossils; and Savie and Nevo (1990) gave an excellent synopsis of the evolutionary history, speciation, and population biology of mole rats. Catzeflis et al. (1989) used DNA-DNA hybridization to compare spalacines with arvicolines and murines to estimate their time of divergence. Vorontsov et al. (1977b) distinguished four species groups based upon biochemical data: N. nehringi, N. leucodon, S. microphthalmus, and the last containing S. graecus, S. polonicus, S. arenarius, and S. giganteus . The species defined biochemically are the same as those defined by Ognev (1963a) and Topachevskii (1969) using morphological traits and by Lyapunova et al. (1974) with chromosomal evidence. To these seven species is added N. ehrenbergi . Although Savie and Nevo (1990:133) acknowledged eight extant species, they concluded that the systematics is unrealistic because "it is based primarily on classical morphology, ignoring the central phenomenon of Spalacid evolution, i.e., chromosomal speciation which suggests that more than 30 living karyotypes, or species have been described and the end is not yet in sight."

Results from sequencing alpha crystalline A chain, a lens protein of the eye in Spalax, and its significance for molecular clock hypothesis and phenetic analysis was discussed by McKenna (1992).