Oriental giant squirrel
(Redirected from Giant squirrel)
| Oriental giant squirrels Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Recent
| |
|---|---|
| File:Malabar Giant Squirrel-Dogra.jpg | |
| Indian giant squirrel (Ratufa indica) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Subfamily: | Ratufinae Moore, 1959 |
| Genus: | Ratufa J. E. Gray, 1867 |
| Type species | |
| Sciurus indicus Erxleben, 1777
| |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Eoscuirus | |
Oriental giant squirrels are cat-sized tree squirrels from the genus Ratufa in the subfamily Ratufinae. They are a distinctive element of the fauna of south and southeast Asia.
Species
[edit | edit source]There are four living species of oriental giant squirrels:
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| File:Sandakan Sabah Giant-Squirrel-in-RDC-02.jpg | Cream-coloured giant squirrel | Ratufa affinis | Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra (Indonesia), Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia) |
| File:Mammal Ratufa bicolor Malayan Giant Squirrel IMG 7905 03.jpg | Black giant squirrel | Ratufa bicolor | Northern Bangladesh, northeast India, eastern Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and western Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Bali and nearby small islands) |
| File:Ratufa indica maxima.jpg | Indian giant squirrel | Ratufa indica | India. |
| File:GrizzledSquirell-cauvery wls.jpg | Grizzled giant squirrel | Ratufa macroura | Southern India, Sri Lanka |
In prehistoric times this lineage was more widespread. For example, animals very similar to Ratufa and possibly belonging to this genus, at least belonging to the Ratufinae, were part of the early Langhian (Middle Miocene, some 16–15.2 million years ago) Hambach fauna of Germany.[1]
References
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