Eutamias is a genus of chipmunk

Chipmunk

Chipmunks are small striped squirrels native to North America and Asia. They are usually classed either as a single genus with three subgenera, or as three genera.-Etymology and taxonomy:...

s within the tribe Marmotini of the squirrel

Squirrel

Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...

 family. It includes a single living species, the Siberian chipmunk

Siberian Chipmunk

The Siberian chipmunk or Common Chipmunk is a chipmunk which occurs across northern Asia from central Russia to China, Korea, and Hokkaidō in northern Japan. The only chipmunk found outside North America, it is classed either as the only living member of the genus Eutamias, or a member of a genus...

 (Eutamias sibiricus). The genus is often treated as a subgenus

Subgenus

In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...

 of Tamias, which is now restricted to the eastern chipmunk

Eastern Chipmunk

The eastern chipmunk is a small squirrel-like rodent found in eastern North America, the sole living member of the chipmunk genus and subgenus Tamias....

 of North America. Neotamias

Neotamias

Neotamias is a genus of chipmunks within the tribe Marmotini of the squirrel family. It contains 23 species, which mostly occur in western North America...

, which now includes the western North American chipmunks, has also been included in Eutamias.

In addition to the Siberian chipmunk, several fossil species have been assigned to this genus:

• Eutamias ertemtensis Qiu, 1991 – late Miocene to Pliocene of China
• Eutamias lishanensis Qiu et al., 2008 – late Miocene of China
• Eutamias orlovi Sulimski, 1964 – Pliocene of Poland and Bulgaria
• Eutamias sihongensis Qiu and Long, 1986 – early Miocene of China
• Eutamias wimani (Young, 1927) – Pleistocene of China

Other chipmunks described from Eurasia include:

• Tamias allobrogensis Mein and Ginsburg, 2002 – Miocene of France
• Tamias atsali De Bruijn, 1995 – Pliocene of Greece
• Tamias eviensis De Bruijn et al., 1980 – Miocene of Greece

Tamias urialis Munthe, 1980, described from the Miocene of Pakistan, may be more closely related to Tamiops.

Literature cited

• Bruijn H. de. 1995. Sciuridae, Petauristidae and Eomyidae (Rodentia, Mammalia). Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (A)28:87–102.
• Doukas, C. 2003. The MN4 faunas of Aliveri and Karydia (Greece). Coloquios de Paleontología, Vol. Ext. 1:127–132.
• Mein, P. and Ginsburg, L. 2002. Sur l'âge relatif des différents dépôts karstiques miocènes de La Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère). Cahiers scientifiques, Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Lyon 2:7–47.
• Musser, G.G., Durden, L.A., Holden, M.E. and Light, J.E. 2010. Systematic review of endemic Sulawesi squirrels (Rodentia, Sciuridae), with descriptions of new species of associated sucking lice (Insecta, Anoplura), and phylogenetic and zoogeographic assessments of sciurid lice. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 339:1–260.
• Piaggio, A. J. and Spicer, G. S. 2001. Molecular phylogeny of the chipmunks inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b and cytochrome oxidase II gene sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 20:335-350.
• Popov V.V. 2004. Pliocene small mammals (Mammalia, Lipotyphla, Chiroptera, Lagomorpha, Rodentia) from Muselievo (North Bulgaria). Geodiversitas 26(3):403–491.
• Qiu, Z. and Storch, G. 2000. The early Pliocene micromammalian fauna of Bilike, Inner Mongolia, China (Mammalia: Lipotyphla, Chiroptera, Rodentia, Lagomorpha). Senckenbergiana lethaea 80(1):173–229.
• Qiu Z.-D., Zheng S.-H. and Zhang Z.-Q. 2008. Sciurids and zapodids from the late Miocene Bahe Formation, Lantian, Shaanxi. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 46(2):111–123.
• Sulimski, A. 1964. Pliocene Lagomorpha and Rodentia from Węże 1 (Poland). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 9:149–244.
• Tyutkova, L.A. 2008. The Middle Miocene rodents of the Ashut locality (Turgay Depression). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 44:437–442.
• Wang X.-M., Qiu Z.-D., Li Q., Tomida, Y., Kimura, Y., Tseng, Z.J. and Wang H.J. 2004. A new Early to Late Miocene fossiliferous region in central Nei Mongol: Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy in Aoerban strata. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 47(2):111–134.