| Neogale | |
|---|---|
| |
| Long-tailed weasel (N. frenata) | |
| |
| American mink (N. vison) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Mustelidae |
| Subfamily: | Mustelinae |
| Genus: | Neogale Gray, 1865 |
| Type species | |
| Mustela frenata[1]
| |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
Neogale is a genus of mustelid native to the Americas, ranging from Alaska south to Bolivia. Members of this genus are known as New World weasels.
Members of this genus were formerly classified into the genera Mustela and Neovison, but many studies had previously recovered several American species of Mustela, as well as both species within Neovison, to comprise a monophyletic clade distinct from all other members of Mustelinae.[2][3] A 2021 study found this clade to have diverged from Mustela during the Late Miocene, between 11.8 - 13.4 million years ago, with all members within the clade being more closely related to one another than to any of the other species in Mustela, and gave it the name Neogale, originally coined by John Edward Gray.[1] The American Society of Mammalogists later accepted this change.[4]
| New World weasels |
| Taxonomy of Neogale[5] |
There are 5 recent species in the genus, 4 extant and 1 extinct:[4]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neogale africana (Desmarest, 1800) | Amazon weasel | Amazon BasinofSouth America | |
| Neogale felipei (Izor and de la Torre, 1978) | Colombian weasel | AndesofColombia and Ecuador | |
|
Neogale frenata (Lichtenstein, 1831) | Long-tailed weasel | Continental North America south of southern Canada; Andes and northern Amazon Basin in South America |
|
Neogale vison (Schreber, 1777) | American mink | North America (United States and Canada); introduced to Europe, Japan, Chile and Argentina |
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Neogale macrodon (Prentiss, 1903) | Sea mink | Maritime ProvincesinCanada, New England in the United States; now extinct |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Neogale |
|
|---|---|
