Pliocene-Recent Holarctic marmots: overview

Marmots are one of the ancient group of mammals. Originated at the end of Miocene in the New World the genus Marmota survives to the Recent time. During its long history a number of migration events can be recorded on the base of paleontological data. The first invasion occurred at the Late Miocene and the next in the Pliocene when marmots widely distributed across Eurasia. From that time Eurasia probably became a new diversification centre of marmots though in North America continued to be a region for marmot speciation. New marmot invasions from North America occurred as well during the Pleistocene. The list of extant and extinct marmots is given.