PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 94(1), 1981, pp. 1-17 AN HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS OF MEXICAN MAMMALIAN TAXONOMY Jose Ramfrez-Pulido and Marie Claire Britton Abstract. — The known terrestrial mammalian fauna of Mexico is com-posed of 10 orders, 32 families, 142 genera, and 436 species. Among these species, 160 are monotypic and 276 are polytypic comprising a total of 1033 subspecies; the total of species and subspecies is 1197. Among the 142 genera and 436 species, 6 and 142, respectively, are endemic. The type locality of 923 categories, among the 1193 found in Mexico, lies in Mexican territory. For the remainder, the taxa were described from specimens cap-tured outside the country. By a historical analysis of the 923 taxa named from Mexico, we have delineated four essential periods. The first (1831-1881) was contemporary with the exploration of the western United States. In this period 77 categories were described, 27 of them by Henri de Saussure and Spencer Fullerton Baird. The second period (1887-1919) saw the awak-ening of interest in research in Mexico by museums and governmental agen-cies of the United States. This period ended with the Mexican Revolution and the first World War. Four hundred and sixty categories were de-scribed, of which Merriam classified 35%. The third period (1922-1942) saw the renewal of exploration trips inside Mexico. One hundred and eighty-four categories were described and it may be considered Nelson and Gold-man's period for they classified 52.2% of the taxa named during this period. The fourth period (1943-present) represented a time of synthesis. Families, genera and species complexes were revised. One hundred and ninety categories were described of which Huey classified 28 and Goodwin 22. In all, 73.4% of the mammalian fauna native to Mexico was described by 18 authors, and 101 other authors named the remainder. Marine mammals are excluded from this report. When one talks about the mammals of a certain region or country, several questions come to mind, for example: how many generic, specific and sub-specific categories are there, and what are they? Which of them have be-come extinct, or are endemic, monotypic, or polytypic? What period was the most prolific in the classification of these taxa? How many authors have participated in the classification? Although the available information on Mexican mammals is extensive and diverse, it has not been summarized in order to answer the questions mentioned above. The starting point for the preparation of this paper is the monumental work by Hall and Kelson (1959) along with the revisions of Handley (1959), and Van Gelder (1959a, 1959b). From that time, up to the end of 1978, the
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