Otomyinae Thomas, 1897

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 679

Subfamily Otomyinae Thomas, 1897 . Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1896:1017 [1897].

COMMENTS: Morphologically, a strongly circumscribed group of species indigenous to Subsaharan Africa; early on ranked as a subfamily of Muridae sensu stricto ( Miller and Gidley, 1918; Simpson, 1945), later as a subfamily of Cricetidae ( Misonne, 1974) or Nesomyidae ( Chaline et al., 1977; Lavocat, 1978). Paleontological evidence and anatomical considerations have reopened the question of their phyletic origin from African murines, especially arvicanthine forms ( Carleton and Musser, 1984; Pocock, 1976), although the phylogenetic significance of the annectant fossil genus (Euryotomys Pocock, 1976), as a murid or cricetid, has been recently disputed (see Denys et al., 1987).

Number of genera recognized has varied from five ( Roberts, 1951) to three ( Thomas, 1918b; Pocock, 1976) to one ( Bohmann, 1952), usually just the two listed here ( Ellerman, 1941; Ellerman et al., 1953; Misonne, 1974; De Graaff, 1981; Meester et al., 1986; Smithers, 1983). The diverse generic arrangements principally reflect the emphasis on dentition versus bullar development as a diagnostic key. Integration of a more heterogeneous information base, such as the allozymic survey initiated by Taylor et al. (1989), would better illuminate phylogenetic relationships and perhaps stabilize our generic classification. Morphological features described by Bernard et al. (1990), Bohmann (1952), Perrin and Curtis (1980), and Tullberg (1899). Few multispecies surveys of chromosomes and proteins undertaken to date; available information covered by Robinson and Elder (1987) and Taylor et al. (1989).