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Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. All species of chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk, which is found primarily in Asia. ==Taxonomy and systematics== Chipmunks may be classified either as a single genus, ''Tamias'' ((ギリシア語:ταμίας)), or as three genera: ''Tamias'', which includes the eastern chipmunk; ''Eutamias'', which includes the Siberian chipmunk; and ''Neotamias'', which includes the 23 remaining, mostly western, species. These classifications are arbitrary, 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''. Streifenhoernchen.jpg|Siberian chipmunk, in South Korea Streifenhörnchen Zion.jpg|Western chipmunk (probably a Uinta chipmunk) in Zion National Park, Utah Tamias striatus2.jpg|Eastern chipmunk The genus name ''Tamias'' is Greek for "treasurer", "steward", or "housekeeper", which is a reference to the animals' role in plant dispersal through their habit of collecting and storing food for winter use. The common name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk," from the native Odawa (Ottawa) word ''jidmoonh'', meaning "red squirrel" (''cf.'' Ojibwe, ''ajidamoo'').〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Online Etymology Dictionary )〕〔Nichols, John D. and Earl Nyholm (1995). ''A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.〕 The earliest form cited in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (from 1842) is "chipmonk," however, "chipmunk" appears in several books from the 1820s and 1830s.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Google Books )〕 Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck," and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels;" probably in reference to the sound they make. In the mid-1800s, John James Audubon and his sons included a lithograph of the chipmunk in their ''Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America'', calling it the "chipping squirrel () hackee." Chipmunks have also been referred to as "striped squirrels," "chippers," "munks," "timber tigers," and "ground squirrels" (although the name "ground squirrel" usually refers to other squirrels, such as those of the genus ''Spermophilus''). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「chipmunk」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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