NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Long-clawed Ground Squirrel
Spermophilopsis leptodactylus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Photo of Long-clawed Ground Squirrel uploaded from iNaturalist.
(c) Kudaibergen Amirekul, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The long-clawed ground squirrel (Spermophilopsis leptodactylus) is a squirrel species native to grasslands and deserts in northeastern Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, northwestern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It is the only member of the tribe Xerini not native to Africa.
Wikipedia contributors, Long-clawed ground squirrel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:45:57.898068+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Spermophilopsis leptodactylus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
- Name authority
- (Lichtenstein, 1823)
- Common name
- Long-clawed Ground Squirrel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Rodentia
- Family
- Sciuridae
- Genus
- Spermophilopsis
- 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
- suborderSciuromorpha Brandt, 1855
- familySciuridae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
- subfamilyXerinae Osborn, 1910
- tribeXerini Osborn, 1910
- genusSpermophilopsis Blasius, 1884
- speciesSpermophilopsis leptodactylus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
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.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=632441 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.
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:4YK9T. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.