Tamias

Tamias is a genus of chipmunks in the tribe Marmotini of the squirrel family. The genus includes a single living species, the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus).<ref>Musser et al., 2010, p. 22</ref> The genus name Tamias (Template:Langx) means "treasurer", "steward", or "housekeeper",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> which is a reference to the animals' role in plant dispersal through their habit of collecting and storing food for winter use.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Tamias - tokyo area - 2012 12 19.ogv The genus Tamias was formerly divided into three subgenera that, in sum, included all chipmunk species: Tamias, the eastern chipmunk and other fossil species; Eutamias, of which the Siberian chipmunk (E. sibiricus) is the only living member; and Neotamias, which includes the 23 remaining, mostly western, species. These classifications are subjective, and most taxonomies over the twentieth century have placed the chipmunks in a single genus. However, studies of mitochondrial DNA show that the divergence between each of the three chipmunk groups is comparable to the genetic dissimilarity between Marmota and Spermophilus,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> so they are now often considered as separate genera.

In addition to the eastern chipmunk, some fossil species from Eurasia have been assigned to this genus:

• Template:ExtinctTamias allobrogensis; Mein and Ginsburg, 2002 – Miocene of France<ref>Mein and Ginsburg, 2002</ref>
• Template:ExtinctTamias anatoliensis; Bosma et al., 2013 – Miocene of Turkey<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Template:ExtinctTamias atsali; De Bruijn, 1995 – Pliocene of Greece<ref>De Bruijn, 1995</ref>
• Template:ExtinctTamias eviensis; De Bruijn et al., 1980 – Miocene of Greece<ref>Doukas, 2003, table 2</ref>
• Template:ExtinctTamias urialis; Munthe, 1980, described from the Miocene of Pakistan, may be more closely related to Tamiops.<ref name=Qea115>Qiu et al., 2008, p. 115</ref>

One American fossil species, Template:ExtinctTamias aristus from the late Pleistocene, has been identified.<ref name="ray">Template:Cite journal</ref>