Animal That Looks Like a Squirrel but Bigger

Animal That Looks Like a Squirrel but Bigger

Genus of mammals (large squirrels)

Not to exist confused with Marmoset.

Marmots Temporal range: Late Miocene – recent
Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris)
Scientific nomenclature
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Grade:	Mammalia
Social club:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Tribe:	Marmotini
Genus:	Marmota Blumenbach, 1779
Type species
Marmota marmota
Species
xv, see text

Marmots are big ground squirrels in the genus Marmota , with xv species living in Asia, Europe, and Northward America. These herbivores are active during the summertime when oftentimes found in groups, but are not seen during the winter when they hibernate underground. They are the heaviest members of the squirrel family. ^[ane]

Description [ edit ]

Marmots are large rodents with characteristically curt but robust legs, enlarged claws which are well adapted to digging, stout bodies, and big heads and incisors to speedily process a multifariousness of vegetation. While about species are various forms of earthen-hued brown, marmots vary in fur coloration based roughly on their surroundings. Species in more open up habitat are more likely to have a paler color, while those sometimes found in well-forested regions tend to be darker. ^{[two] [3]} Marmots are the heaviest members of the squirrel family unit. Total length varies typically from about 42 to 72 cm (17 to 28 in) and body mass averages well-nigh 2 kg (4+ 1⁄2  lb) in bound in the smaller species and 8 kg (eighteen lb) in autumn, at times exceeding 11 kg (24 lb), in the larger species. ^{[iv] [5] [6]} The largest and smallest species are non clearly known. ^{[3] [4]} In North America, on the basis of mean linear dimensions and body masses through the year, the smallest species appears to be the Alaska marmot and the largest is the Olympic marmot. ^{[5] [7] [8] [6]} Some species, such as the Himalayan marmot and Tarbagan marmot in Asia, announced to attain roughly similar body masses to the Olympic marmot, but are not known to reach equally high a total length every bit the Olympic species. ^{[9] [10]} In the traditional definition of hibernation, the largest marmots are considered the largest "truthful hibernators" (since larger "hibernators" such as bears practice not have the aforementioned physiological characteristics as obligate hibernating animals such as contrasted rodents, bats and insectivores). ^{[11] [12]}

Biology [ edit ]

Some species live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe; northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, the Cascade and Pacific Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada in Due north America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India. Other species prefer rough grassland and tin can exist found widely across Northward America and the Eurasian Steppe. The slightly smaller and more than social prairie dog is not classified in the genus Marmota, but in the related genus Cynomys.

Marmots typically live in burrows (often inside rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and hibernate in that location through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.

Marmots mainly swallow greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers.

Subgenera and species [ edit ]

The following is a listing of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman ^[thirteen] plus the recently defined Yard. kastschenkoi. ^[fourteen] They carve up marmots into two subgenera.

• Genus Marmota – marmots
  • Subgenus Marmota
    • Alaska marmot, Brower'southward marmot, or Brooks Range marmot, M. broweri found in Alaska
    • Alpine marmot, M. marmota found only in Europe in the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Tatra Mountains, northern Apennine Mountains, and reintroduced in the Pyrenees
    • Blackness-capped marmot, M. camtschatica found in eastern Siberia
    • Bobak marmot, G. bobak found from eastern Europe to central Asia
    • Forest-steppe marmot, M. kastschenkoi constitute in s Russia ^[fourteen]
    • Grey marmot or Altai marmot, Thousand. baibacina found in Siberia
    • Groundhog, woodchuck, or whistlepig, One thousand. monax found in much of Canada and east of the Mississippi in northern United states
    • Himalayan marmot or Tibetan snow grunter, M. himalayana found in the Himalayas
    • Long-tailed marmot, gilt marmot, or reddish marmot, Thou. caudata found in central Asia
    • Menzbier's marmot, M. menzbieri found in central Asia
    • Tarbagan marmot, Mongolian marmot, or tarvaga, K. sibirica found in Siberia
  • Subgenus Petromarmota
    • Hoary marmot, 1000. caligata constitute in northwestern North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Montana)
    • Olympic marmot, M. olympus endemic to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, United states
    • Vancouver Island marmot, Thousand. vancouverensis endemic to Vancouver Isle, British Columbia, Canada
    • Yellow-bellied marmot, M. flaviventris constitute in southwestern Canada and western United states of america

Additionally, four extinct species of marmots are recognized from the fossil record:

• †Marmota arizonae, Arizona, U.S. ^{[15] [xvi]}
• †Marmota minor, Nevada, U.S. ^[17]
• †Marmota robusta, China^{[ commendation needed ]}
• †Marmota vetus, Nebraska, U.S. ^[18]

History and etymology [ edit ]

Marmota primigenia fossil

Marmots accept been known since antiquity. Inquiry by the French ethnologist Michel Peissel claimed the story of the "Gold-digging pismire" reported by the Aboriginal Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE, was founded on the gilded Himalayan marmot of the Deosai Plateau and the habit of local tribes such every bit the Brokpa to collect the gilt dust excavated from their burrows. ^[nineteen]

An anatomically accurate image of a marmot was printed and distributed as early as 1605 by Jacopo Ligozzi, who was noted for his images of flora and animate being.

The etymology of the term "marmot" is uncertain. It may have arisen from the Gallo-Romance prefix marm-, meaning to mumble or murmur (an example of onomatopoeia). Another possible origin is postclassical Latin, mus montanus, meaning "mount mouse". ^[twenty]

Starting time in 2010, Alaska celebrates February 2 as "Marmot Day", a holiday intended to observe the prevalence of marmots in that land and take the place of Groundhog Day. ^[21]

Human relationship to the Blackness Expiry [ edit ]

A number of historians and paleogeneticists had postulated that the Yersinia pestis variant that caused the pandemic that struck Eurasia in the 14th century originated from a variant for which marmots in Communist china were the natural reservoir species. ^{[22] [23]}

Examples of species [ edit ]

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  Gold Marmot in Kashmir

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  Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus)

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References [ edit ]

1. ^ Kryštufek, B.; B. Vohralík (2013). "Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic rodents (Rodentia). Function 2. Sciuridae: Urocitellus, Marmota and Sciurotamias". Lynx, North. S. (Praha). 44: 27–138.
2. ^ Armitage, KB; Wolff, JO; Sherman, Pow (2007). Development of sociality in marmots: it begins with hibernation. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 356–367.
3. ^ ^{a b} Cardini, A; O'Higgins, Paul (2004). "Patterns of morphological evolution in Marmota (Rodentia, Sciuridae): geometric morphometrics of the cranium in the context of marmot phylogeny, environmental, and conservation". Biological Periodical of the Linnean Society. 82 (3): 385–407. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2004.00367.ten .
4. ^ ^{a b} Armitage, KB; Blumstein, DT (2002). Body-mass diversity in marmots. Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity. Moscow: ABF. pp. 22–32.
5. ^ ^{a b} Edelman, AJ (2003). "Marmota olympus". Mammalian Species. 2003 (736): i–5. doi: 10.1644/736 . S2CID198129914.
6. ^ ^{a b} Armitage, KB; Downhower, JF; Svendsen, GE (1976). "Seasonal changes in weights of marmots". American Midland Naturalist. 96 (1): 36–51. doi:10.2307/2424566. JSTOR2424566.
7. ^ Barash, David P. (1989). Marmots: Social Behavior and Ecology . Stanford, California: Stanford Academy Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1534-8 .
8. ^ Hubbart, JA (2011). "Current Understanding of the Alaska Marmot (Marmota broweri): A Sensitive Species in a Changing Environment". Journal of Biological science and Life Sciences. 2 (2): vi–13.
9. ^ Murdoch, JD; Munkhzul, T; Buyandelger, S; Reading, RP; Sillero-Zubiri, C (2009). "The Endangered Siberian marmot Marmota sibirica every bit a keystone species? Observations and implications of burrow apply by corsac foxes Vulpes corsac in Mongolia". Oryx. 43 (iii): 431–434. doi: 10.1017/S0030605309001100 .
10. ^ Chaudhary, 5; Tripathi, RS; Singh, S; Raghuvanshi, MS (2017). "Distribution and population of Himalayan Marmot Marmota himalayana (Hodgson, 1841)(Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) in Leh-Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 9 (11): 10886–10891. doi: 10.11609/jott.3336.9.11.10886-10891 .
11. ^ Armitage, KB (1999). "Development of sociality in marmots". Journal of Mammalogy. 80 (1): i–ten. doi: x.2307/1383202 . JSTOR1383202.
12. ^ Nedergaard, J; Cannon, B (1990). "Mammalian hibernation". Philosophical Transactions of the Majestic Society of London. B, Biological Sciences. 326 (1237): 669–686. Bibcode:1990RSPTB.326..669N. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1990.0038 . PMID1969651.
13. ^ Thorington, R. W., Jr., and R. S. Hoffman. (2005). "Family Sciuridae". Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference , pp. 754–818. D. East. Wilson and D. M. Reeder, eds. Johns Hopkins University Printing, Baltimore.
14. ^ ^{a b} Brandler, OV (2003). "On species condition of the forest-steppe marmot Marmota kastschenkoi (Rodentia, Marmotinae)". Zoologičeskij žurnal (in Russian). 82 (12): 1498–1505.
15. ^ GBIF Secretariat. "Marmota arizonae GBIF Courage Taxonomy" . Retrieved xxx April 2017.
16. ^ "Marmota arizonae Hay".
17. ^ Paleobiology Database. "Marmota minor" . Retrieved 30 Apr 2017.
18. ^ GBIF Secretariat. "Marmota vetus GBIF Backbone Taxonomy" . Retrieved 30 Apr 2017.
19. ^ Peissel, Michel. "The Ants' Gilded: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas". Collins, 1984. ISBN978-0-00-272514-9.
20. ^ "Marmot" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Printing. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
21. ^ The Associated Press. "Alaska to Gloat its First Marmot Day" Archived 2010-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Feb. 1, 2010. Accessed Feb. 1, 2010.
22. ^ Smithsonian Magazine. "Did the Blackness Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?", March 25, 2022. Accessed March 27, 2010.
23. ^ The American Historical Review. "The Four Blackness Deaths", December 17, 2022. Accessed March 27, 2010.

External links [ edit ]

• The Marmot Burrow
• International Marmot Network

Animal That Looks Like a Squirrel but Bigger

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmot