NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Piute Ground Squirrel
Urocitellus mollis (Kennicott, 1863)
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.
Piute Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus mollis). Species of mammal.
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Open encyclopedia reference
The Piute ground squirrel (Urocitellus mollis) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is endemic to the Great Basin region of the western United States, where it is found in parts of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
Wikipedia contributors, Piute ground squirrel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:15:21.545275+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Urocitellus mollis (Kennicott, 1863)
- Name authority
- (Kennicott, 1863)
- Common name
- Piute Ground Squirrel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Rodentia
- Family
- Sciuridae
- Genus
- Urocitellus
- 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
- tribeMarmotini Pocock, 1923
- genusUrocitellus Obolenskij, 1927
- speciesUrocitellus mollis (Kennicott, 1863)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Urocitellus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Long-tailed Ground SquirrelUrocitellus undulatus (Pallas, 1778) | SciuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Townsend's Ground SquirrelUrocitellus townsendii (Bachman, 1839) | SciuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Spermophilus mollis Kennicott, 1863 Kennicott, 1863 | synonym |
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=930320 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:7DTRX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.