Caviinae is a subfamily uniting all living members of the family
Caviidae with the exception of the
maras,
capybaras, and
Kerodon. The subfamily traditionally contained the
guinea pig-like forms along with the cursorially adapted (running)
Kerodon.
Molecular results suggest the Caviinae as so defined would be
paraphyletic and
Kerodon is more closely related to maras and capybaras than to other caviines. This led Woods and Kilpatrick (2005) to unite
Kerodon and capybaras into the subfamily Hydrochoerinae within the Caviidae. These studies also suggest
Microcavia and
Cavia are more closely related to one another than either is to
Galea.