American zoologist and ethnographer Clinton Hart Merriam first formally described the Olympic marmot in 1898, as Arctomys olympus, from a specimen he and Vernon Orlando Bailey collected on the Sol Duc River.
The genus, Arctomys, is from the Greek for "bear-mouse".
The species name, olympus (Olympic in Greek), was given because this species is native to the Olympic Peninsula.
The species now is classified with all other marmots in the genus Marmota.
Zoologist R. L. Rausch classified the Olympic marmot as the subspecies olympus of Marmota marmota (he included all North American marmots in this species, which now only includes the Eurasian Alpine marmot) in 1953, but it has usually been treated as a distinct species, a classification supported by taxonomic reviews starting with that of zoologist Robert S. Hoffmann and colleagues in 1979.

Within Marmota, the Olympic marmot is grouped with species such as the hoary marmot (M. caligata) in the subgenus Petromarmota.
Among this grouping, mitochondrial DNA analyses suggest that the Olympic marmot could be the most basal species.
The Olympic marmot is thought to have originated during the last glacial period as an isolated relict population of the hoary marmot in the Pleistocene ice-free refugia.
The Olympic marmot deviates from the typical Petromarmota marmots in the shape and large size of its mandible (jawbone), in differences of the dorsal (back) region, and having 40 chromosomes instead of 42, all of which are characteristics that resemble the subgenus Marmota.
Some of the differences of the Olympic marmot's jawbone from the typical Petramarmota are also evident in the Vancouver Island marmot (M. vancouverensis), which evolved separately, but also occurs in a restricted range with a small population.
American zoologist and ethnographer Clinton Hart Merriam first formally described the Olympic marmot in 1898, as Arctomys olympus, from a specimen he and Vernon Orlando Bailey collected on the Sol Duc River. The genus, Arctomys, is from the Greek for "bear-mouse". The species name, olympus (Olympic in Greek), was given because this species is native to the Olympic Peninsula. The species now is classified with all other marmots in the genus Marmota. Zoologist R. L. Rausch classified the Olympic marmot as the subspecies olympus of Marmota marmota (he included all North American marmots in this species, which now only includes the Eurasian Alpine marmot) in 1953, but it has usually been treated as a distinct species, a classification supported by taxonomic reviews starting with that of zoologist Robert S. Hoffmann and colleagues in 1979.
Within Marmota, the Olympic marmot is grouped with species such as the hoary marmot (M. caligata) in the subgenus Petromarmota. Among this grouping, mitochondrial DNA analyses suggest that the Olympic marmot could be the most basal species. The Olympic marmot is thought to have originated during the last glacial period as an isolated relict population of the hoary marmot in the Pleistocene ice-free refugia. The Olympic marmot deviates from the typical Petromarmota marmots in the shape and large size of its mandible (jawbone), in differences of the dorsal (back) region, and having 40 chromosomes instead of 42, all of which are characteristics that resemble the subgenus Marmota. Some of the differences of the Olympic marmot's jawbone from the typical Petramarmota are also evident in the Vancouver Island marmot (M. vancouverensis), which evolved separately, but also occurs in a restricted range with a small population.
Olympic marmot