Neogale

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Long tailed weasel on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge (35240138322).jpg

| image_caption = Long-tailed weasel (N. frenata)

| image2 = American mink (16142491595).jpg

| image2_caption = American mink (N. vison)

| taxon = Neogale

| authority = Gray, 1865

| type_species = Mustela frenata{{cite journal|last1=Patterson|first1=Bruce D.|last2=Ramírez-Chaves|first2=Héctor E.|last3=Vilela|first3=Júlio F.|last4=Soares|first4=André E. R.|last5=Grewe|first5=Felix|year=2021|title=On the nomenclature of the American clade of weasels (Carnivora: Mustelidae)|journal=Journal of Animal Diversity|volume=3|issue=2|pages=1–8 |doi=10.52547/JAD.2021.3.2.1|s2cid=236299740 |issn=2676-685X|doi-access=free}}

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = N. africana

N. felipei

N. frenata

N. vison

{{extinct}}N. macrodon

| synonyms = * Mustela (in part)

Neovison Baryshnikov & Abramov, 1997
Grammogale
Cabreragale

| range_map = Neogale range.png

| range_map_caption = Neogale range, including non-native areas

}}

Neogale (colloquially referred to as the New World weasels) is a genus of carnivorous, highly active small mammals belonging to the Mustelidae family (which also contains badgers, weasels, martens, otters, and wolverines, among others). Native to the Americas, members of the genus can be found as far north as Alaska and as far south as Argentina and Bolivia. Across this distribution, they thrive in a range of habitats, from the deep-freezes of the Alaskan and Canadian boreal forests to the arid desert southwest, and from the humid tropics of Central and South America (including the Amazon basin) to the windswept foothills of the Andes and northern Patagonia.

Taxonomy

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.{{cite journal|last1=Koepfli|first1=Klaus-Peter|last2=Deere|first2=K.A.|last3=Slater|first3=G.J.|last4=Begg|first4=C.|last5=Begg|first5=K.|last6=Grassman|first6=L.|last7=Lucherini|first7=M.|last8=Veron|first8=G.|last9=Wayne|first9=R.K.|date=February 2008|title=Multigene phylogeny of the Mustelidae: Resolving relationships, tempo and biogeographic history of a mammalian adaptive radiation|journal=BMC Biology|volume=6|page=10|doi=10.1186/1741-7007-6-10|pmc=2276185|pmid=18275614 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal|last1=Law|first1=C. J.|last2=Slater|first2=G. J.|last3=Mehta|first3=R. S.|date=2018-01-01|title=Lineage Diversity and Size Disparity in Musteloidea: Testing Patterns of Adaptive Radiation Using Molecular and Fossil-Based Methods|journal=Systematic Biology|volume=67|issue=1|pages=127–144|doi=10.1093/sysbio/syx047|pmid=28472434|doi-access=free}} 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. The American Society of Mammalogists later accepted this change.{{Cite mdd|genus=Neogale|access-date=2021-07-01}}

{{Cladogram|title=New World weasels|align=center|caption=Taxonomy of Neogale{{cite journal|first1=K.|last1=Nyakatura|first2=O. R. P.|last2=Bininda-Emonds|year=2012|title=Updating the evolutionary history of Carnivora (Mammalia): a new species-level supertree complete with divergence time estimates|journal=BMC Biology|volume=10|issue=#12|pages=12|doi=10.1186/1741-7007-10-12|pmc=3307490|pmid=22369503 |doi-access=free }}|cladogram={{clade |style=font-size:90%; line-height:65%;width:300px;

|label1=Mustelinae

|1={{clade

|1=Mustela

|label2=Neogale

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=Neogale africana

|2=Neogale felipei

}}

|2=Neogale frenata

}}

|2={{clade