Gundi

This article is about the rodent in general. For the North African gundi, see Common gundi. For other uses, see Gundi (disambiguation).
For the beetle, see Ctenodactylinae.

Gundi
Temporal range: Early Oligocene – Recent
Ctenodactylus gundi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Infraorder: Ctenodactylomorphi
Family: Ctenodactylidae
Gervais, 1853
Type genus
Ctenodactylus
Gray, 1830
Genera

Ctenodactylus
Felovia
Massoutiera
Pectinator

Gundis or comb rats (family Ctenodactylidae) are a group of small, stocky rodents found in Africa. They live in rocky deserts across the northern parts of the continent. The family comprises four living genera and five species (Speke's gundi, Felou gundi, Val's or desert gundi, common or North African gundi and Mzab gundi), as well as numerous extinct genera and species.[1] They are in the superfamily Ctenodactyloidea. Local people in northern Africa have always known about gundis, however they first came to the notice of western naturalists in Tripoli in 1774, and were given the name gundi mice.[2] While they are not regarded as pests, some people hunt gundis for food.[3]

All living gundi species are members of the Ctenodactylinae sub-family. The Ctenodactylidae family also includes three extinct sub-families, Tataromyinae, Karakoromyinae and Dystylomyinae.[4]

  1. ^ McKenna, Malcolm C.; Bell, Susan K. (1997). Classification of Mammals above the Species Level. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11013-8.
  2. ^ Macdonald, David W., ed. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920608-2.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grzimek was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ López-Antoñanzas, Raquel; Knoll, Fabien (2011). "A comprehensive phylogeny of the gundis (Ctenodactylinae, Ctenodactylidae, Rodentia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 9 (3): 3. doi:10.1080/14772019.2010.529175.