Black-footed Lemming

Open encyclopedia reference

The West Siberian lemming or Western Siberian brown lemming (Lemmus sibiricus) is a true lemming species found in the Russian Federation. Like other lemmings, it belongs to the family Cricetidae of rodents. It is endemic to Russia, where it has a wide range throughout Siberia, from the region just south of the White Sea east all the way to the Verkhoyansk Range, which serves as a barrier between it and the East Siberian lemming (L. paulus), which was formerly considered conspecific with it. An insular population inhabits Novaya Zemlya; a 2021 study which performed genetic analysis on the mtDNA of the Novaya Zemlya population found them to group with the Norway lemming (L. lemmus) despite their similar appearance to mainland L. sibiricus, and classified them as the subspecies L. l. chernovi, or Novaya Zemlya lemming. However, the American Society of Mammalogists rejected these results pending further evidence, stating that these more likely represented L. sibiricus with ancient mitochondrial introgression from L. lemmus (see the article for L. lemmus for further info).

Wikipedia contributors, West Siberian lemming; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:42:08.950594+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Lemmus sibiricus (Kerr, 1792)

Name authority

(Kerr, 1792)

Common name

Black-footed Lemming

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Cricetidae

Genus

Lemmus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
12. suborderMyomorpha Brandt, 1855
13. superfamilyMuroidea Illiger, 1811
14. familyCricetidae Fischer, 1817
15. subfamilyArvicolinae Gray, 1821
16. genusLemmus Link, 1795
17. speciesLemmus sibiricus (Kerr, 1792)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Lemmus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 593 records assigned to Cricetidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=180320 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3T4R9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.