Glironiinae, Hershkovitz, 1992

Voss, RS & Jansa, SA, 2009, Phylogenetic Relationships And Classification Of Didelphid Marsupials, An Extant Radiation Of New World Metatherian Mammals, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2009 (322), pp. 1-177 : 88-89

Subfamily Glironiinae , new

CONTENTS: Glironia .

DIAGNOSIS: Members of this clade differ from other didelphids by the extension of soft fur along the dorsal surface of the tail from base to tip (the dorsal surface of the tail is macroscopically naked distally in other opossums), by strongly recurved and laterally compressed manual claws (manual claws are much less strongly recurved and laterally compressed in other opossums), and by postorbital processes that are formed by the frontals and parietals (postorbital processes are absent or are formed only by the frontals in other opossums).

REMARKS: The name Glironiidae as used by Hershkovitz (1992a, 1992b, 1999) was a nomen nudum because it was not accompanied by a statement of diagnostic characters ( ICZN, 1999: Article 13). To our knowledge, no family-group name based on Glironia is technically available from any other publication.