Order Rodentia - Family Muridae Author Guy G. Musser Author Michael D. Carleton text 1993 Smithsonian Institution Press Washington and London Editor Don E. Wilson Editor DeeAnn M. Reeder Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition) 501 755 book chapter http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7353098 1-56098-217-9 7353098 Ondatra Link, 1795 . Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte, 1 (2):76 . TYPE SPECIES: Castor zibethicus Linnaeus, 1766 . SYNONYMS: Fiber , Moschomys , Simotes . COMMENTS: Tribe Ondatrini , either as sole member ( Hooper and Hart, 1962 ; Koenigswald, 1980 ) or with Neofiber ( Chaline and Mein , 1979 ; Kretzoi, 1969 ; Repenning et al., 1990 ). Evidence from fossil history and morphology suggests that the two genera of "muskrats" are more distantly related than their inclusion in the same tribe would connote ( Carleton, 1981 ; Hooper and Hart, 1962 ; Koenigswald, 1980 ; L. D. Martin, 1975 , 1979). Believed to have originated from Pliocene form Pliopotamys ( Eshelman, 1975 ; Zakrzewski, 1974 ).