A new species of Heliscomys and recognition of the Family Heliscomyidae (Geomyoidea: Rodentia)

Abstract
Excellent material, including two partial skulls, of the geomyoid rodent Heliscomys is the basis for a new species (H. ostranderi), and allows the recognition of a new family, the Heliscomyidae, which includes Heliscomys Cope and Apletotomeus Reeder. Heliscomyidae, an early offshoot of the Geomyoidea, is not ancestral to any later geomyoids. Two lineages of Heliscomys are recognized, one distinguished by reduction in size and specialization of the premolars, and the other (which includes H. ostranderi) by enlargement of the premolars and development of stylar cusps on the upper molars.

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