Are the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae closely related? Contradistinctive conclusions between genetics and palaeontology

Abstract

The reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae based on the fossil record strongly suggests that these do not share the same murid ancestor and developed separately since the early Oligocene. This conclusion is supported by the difference in evolutionary dynamics between these groups during the Miocene and Pliocene. Molecular genetic studies of extant representatives of the Rhizomyinae, Spalacinae and Myospalacinae, however, suggest that these subfamilies share similarities that distinguish them from all other Muridae. As a result, geneticists unite these subfamilies into the family Spalacidae and consider the Spalacidae and the Muridae to be sister lineages. Until the conflict between the two disciplines is resolved we prefer to maintain the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae as two subfamilies within the family Muridae (superfamily Muroidea).