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Urocitellus
	Richardson's ground squirrel in Manitoba
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Tribe:	Marmotini
Genus:	Urocitellus; Obolenskij, 1927
Species
	See text.

Urocitellus is a genus of ground squirrels. They were previously believed to belong to the much larger genus Spermophilus, but DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene showed that this group was paraphyletic to the prairie dogs and marmots,^[1] and could therefore no longer be retained as a single genus. As a result, Urocitellus is now considered as a genus in its own right.^[2]

All but two species are native to the northern and western parts of North America, from California and Minnesota through the north-western United States and western Canada; the Arctic ground squirrel inhabits Arctic terrain on both sides of the Bering Strait, while the long-tailed ground squirrel is exclusively found in Asia. The name of the genus is said to be derived from the Latin uro, meaning "tail" and citellus for "ground squirrel".^[2] The proper word for "tail" in classical Latin is cauda.^[3] Oura (οὐρά) is the ancient Greek word for "tail".^[4]

Species

Thirteen species are currently identified:

Genus Urocitellus

Uinta ground squirrel, Urocitellus armatus
Belding's ground squirrel, Urocitellus beldingi
Northern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus brunneus
Merriam's ground squirrel, Urocitellus canus
Columbian ground squirrel, Urocitellus columbianus
Wyoming ground squirrel, Urocitellus elegans
Southern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus endemicus
Piute ground squirrel, Urocitellus mollis
Arctic ground squirrel, Urocitellus parryii
Richardson's ground squirrel, Urocitellus richardsonii
Townsend's ground squirrel, Urocitellus townsendii
Long-tailed ground squirrel, Urocitellus undulatus
Washington ground squirrel, Urocitellus washingtoni

References

^ Herron, Matthew D.; Castoe, Todd A.; Parkinson, Christopher L. (2004). "Sciurid phylogeny and the paraphyly of Holarctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (3): 1015–30. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.09.015. PMID 15120398.
^ ^a ^b Helgen, Kristofer M.; Cole, F. Russel; Helgen, Lauren E. & Wilson, Don E (2009). "Generic Revision in the Holarctic Ground Squirrel Genus Spermophilus" (PDF). Journal of Mammalogy. 90 (2): 270–305. doi:10.1644/07-MAMM-A-309.1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
^ Lewis, C.T. & Short, C. (1879). A Latin dictionary founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
^ Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.