Marmot
Marmots Temporal range: Late Miocene – recent
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Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Sciuridae |
Tribe: | Marmotini |
Genus: | Marmota Blumenbach, 1779 |
Type species | |
Marmota marmota | |
Species | |
15, see text |
Marmots are large
Description
Marmots are large rodents with characteristically short but robust legs, enlarged claws which are well adapted to digging, stout bodies, and large heads and incisors to quickly process a variety of vegetation. While most species are various forms of earthen-hued brown, marmots vary in fur coloration based roughly on their surroundings. Species in more open habitat are more likely to have a paler color, while those sometimes found in well-
Biology
Some species live in mountainous areas, such as the
Marmots typically live in burrows (often within rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.
Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers.
Subgenera and species
The following is a list of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman[13] plus the recently defined M. kastschenkoi.[14] They divide marmots into two subgenera.
Subgenus | Image | Name | Common Name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|---|
Marmota | Marmota baibacina | Gray marmot or Altai marmot | Siberia | |
Marmota bobak | Bobak marmot | eastern Europe to central Asia | ||
Marmota broweri | Alaska marmot, Brower's marmot, or Brooks Range marmot | Alaska | ||
Marmota camtschatica | Black-capped marmot | eastern Siberia | ||
Marmota caudata | Long-tailed marmot, golden marmot, or red marmot | central Asia | ||
Marmota himalayana | Himalayan marmot or Tibetan snow pig | the Himalayas | ||
Marmota kastschenkoi | Forest-steppe marmot | south Russia[14] | ||
Marmota marmota | Alpine marmot | Europe only in the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Tatra Mountains, northern Apennine Mountains, and reintroduced in the Pyrenees | ||
Marmota menzbieri | Menzbier's marmot | central Asia | ||
Marmota monax | Groundhog, woodchuck, or whistlepig | Canada and east of the Mississippi in northern USA | ||
Marmota sibirica | Tarbagan marmot, Mongolian marmot, or tarvaga | Siberia | ||
Petromarmota | Marmota caligata | Hoary marmot | northwestern North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Montana) | |
Marmota flaviventris | Yellow-bellied marmot | southwestern Canada and western United States | ||
Marmota olympus | Olympic marmot | endemic to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, United States | ||
Marmota vancouverensis | Vancouver Island marmot | endemic to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada |
Additionally, four extinct species of marmots are recognized from the fossil record:
- †Marmota arizonae, Arizona, U.S.[15][16]
- †Marmota minor, Nevada, U.S.[17]
- Marmota robusta, China = M. himalayana
- †Marmota vetus, Nebraska, U.S.[18]
History and etymology
Marmots have been known since antiquity. Research by the French ethnologist Michel Peissel claimed the story of the "Gold-digging ant" reported by the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE, was founded on the golden Himalayan marmot of the Deosai Plateau and the habit of local tribes such as the Brokpa to collect the gold dust excavated from their burrows.[19] Some historians believe that Strabo's λέων μύρμηξ and Agatharchides's μυρμηκολέων, most probably are the marmot.[20]
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 fauna.
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 "mountain mouse".[21]
Beginning in 2010, Alaska celebrates February 2 as "Marmot Day", a holiday intended to observe the prevalence of marmots in that state and take the place of Groundhog Day.[22]
Relationship to the Black Death
A number of historians and paleogeneticists have 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 China were the natural reservoir species.[23][24]
References
- ^ Kryštufek, B.; B. Vohralík (2013). "Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic rodents (Rodentia). Part 2. Sciuridae: Urocitellus, Marmota and Sciurotamias". Lynx, N. S. (Praha). 44: 27–138.
- ^ Armitage, KB; Wolff, JO; Sherman, PW (2007). Evolution of sociality in marmots: it begins with hibernation. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 356–367.
- ^ S2CID 83837961.
- ^ a b Armitage, KB; Blumstein, DT (2002). Body-mass diversity in marmots. Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity. Moscow: ABF. pp. 22–32.
- ^ S2CID 198129914.
- ^ JSTOR 2424566.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-1534-8.
- ^ Hubbart, JA (2011). "Current Understanding of the Alaska Marmot (Marmota broweri): A Sensitive Species in a Changing Environment". Journal of Biology and Life Sciences. 2 (2): 6–13.
- .
- .
- S2CID 87325825.
- PMID 1969651.
- ^ 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. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder, eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
- ^ Zoologičeskij žurnal(in Russian). 82 (12): 1498–1505.
- ^ GBIF Secretariat. "Marmota arizonae GBIF Backbone Taxonomy". Retrieved 30 April 2017.
- ^ "Marmota arizonae Hay".
- ^ Paleobiology Database. "Marmota minor". Retrieved 30 April 2017.
- ^ GBIF Secretariat. "Marmota vetus GBIF Backbone Taxonomy". Retrieved 30 April 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-00-272514-9.
- ^ Strabo, Geography H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed., 16.4.15, note 1
- ^ "Marmot". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ The Associated Press. "Alaska to Celebrate its First Marmot Day" Archived 2010-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Feb. 1, 2010. Accessed Feb. 1, 2010.
- ^ Smithsonian Magazine. "Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?", March 25, 2021. Accessed March 27, 2010.
- ^ The American Historical Review. "The Four Black Deaths", December 17, 2020. Accessed March 27, 2010.