scholarly journals Evolutionary history of field mice (Murinae: Apodemus), with emphasis on morphological variation among species in China and description of a new species

2019 ◽  
Vol 187 (2) ◽  
pp. 518-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deyan Ge ◽  
Anderson Feijó ◽  
Jilong Cheng ◽  
Liang Lu ◽  
Rongrong Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractMice of the genus Apodemus are widely distributed across Eurasia. Several species of this genus are hosts of important zoonotic diseases and parasites. The evolutionary history and dispersal routes of these mice remain unclear and the distribution of these species in China was poorly explored in previous studies. We here investigate the divergence times and historical geographical evolution of Apodemus and study the taxonomy of species in China by integrating molecular and morphological data. The crown age of this genus is dated to the Late Miocene, approximately 9.84 Mya. Western and Central Asia were inferred as the most likely ancestral area of this genus. Moreover, we recognize nine living species of Apodemus in China: Apodemus uralensis, A. agrarius, A. chevrieri, A. latronum, A. peninsulae, A. draco, A. ilex, A. semotus and A. nigrus sp. nov., the last from the highlands (elevation > 1984 m) of Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou Province and Jinfo Mountain in Chongqing Province. This new species diverged from A. draco, A. semotus and A. ilex approximately 4.53 Mya. The discovery of A. nigrus highlights the importance of high mountains as refugia and ‘isolated ecological islands’ for temperate species in south-eastern China.

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1932) ◽  
pp. 20201497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Thomas ◽  
Alan J. D. Tennyson ◽  
R. Paul Scofield ◽  
Tracy A. Heath ◽  
Walker Pett ◽  
...  

New Zealand is a globally significant hotspot for seabird diversity, but the sparse fossil record for most seabird lineages has impeded our understanding of how and when this hotspot developed. Here, we describe multiple exceptionally well-preserved specimens of a new species of penguin from tightly dated (3.36–3.06 Ma) Pliocene deposits in New Zealand. Bayesian and parsimony analyses place Eudyptes atatu sp. nov. as the sister species to all extant and recently extinct members of the crested penguin genus Eudyptes . The new species has a markedly more slender upper beak and mandible compared with other Eudyptes penguins. Our combined evidence approach reveals that deep bills evolved in both crested and stiff-tailed penguins ( Pygoscelis ) during the Pliocene. That deep bills arose so late in the greater than 60 million year evolutionary history of penguins suggests that dietary shifts may have occurred as wind-driven Pliocene upwelling radically restructured southern ocean ecosystems. Ancestral area reconstructions using BioGeoBEARS identify New Zealand as the most likely ancestral area for total-group penguins, crown penguins and crested penguins. Our analyses provide a timeframe for recruitment of crown penguins into the New Zealand avifauna, indicating this process began in the late Neogene and was completed via multiple waves of colonizing lineages.


2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Dabert

AbstractNeumannella skorackii, a new species of the feather mite family Dermoglyphidae (Acari, Astigmata) is described from the Red-winged Tinamou Rhynchotus rufescens (Temminck, 1815) (Aves, Tinamiformes) from Paraguay and a key to all known species of the genus is provided. The phylogenetic relationships (MP analysis of 25 morphological characters) between Neumannella species along with the evolutionary history of host-parasite associations revealed by Jungle reconciliation method are reconstructed. Relatively low cospeciation contribution to the recent host-parasite associations is discovered.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
WIESŁAW KRZEMIŃSKI ◽  
IWONA KANIA ◽  
KATARZYNA KOPEĆ ◽  
MAGDALENA OKOŃ

The description of a new species of the genus Dicranomyia Stephens, 1829 (Diptera: Limoniidae) from Colombian copal is presented. The newly described species Dicranomyia (Dicranomyia) colombiana sp. nov. is the first representative of the genus in Colombian copal. The ecological and biogeographical patterns, morphological evolution and the aspects evolutionary history of extinct and extant representatives of Dicranomyia (with particular references to the representatives in Colombian copal) are discussed. 


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Ross ◽  
Michael S. Engel

The first earwig (Dermaptera) to be described from Mexican (Miocene) amber is named Haplodiplatys crightoni Ross & Engel sp.n., represented by an adult female and constituting the second record of the basal family Diplatyidae in the fossil record. Brief comments are made regarding the biogeographic implications of the fossil and the evolutionary history of Diplatyidae.


Author(s):  
Alberto Collareta ◽  
Agatino Reitano ◽  
Antonietta Rosso ◽  
Rossana Sanfelippo ◽  
Mark Bosselaers ◽  
...  

Coronuloid barnacles are epibionts of several marine vertebrates (including cetaceans and sea turtles) as well as invertebrates, and are assigned to two families of turtle barnacles (Chelonibiidae Pilsbry, 1916 and Platylepadidae Newman & Ross, 1976) and one family of whale barnacles (Coronulidae Leach, 1817). Chelonibiids and coronulids have a scanty, albeit significant fossil record extending back to the Eocene and Pliocene, respectively; in turn, the fossil record of platylepadids is limited to a single record from the Upper Pleistocene. Here we report on an isolated carinolateral compartment of Platylepas Gray, 1825, the type genus of the family, from Lower Pleistocene (Gelasian) epibathyal deposits exposed at Milazzo (Sicily, Italy). This specimen is here designated holotype of a new species, †Platylepas mediterranea sp. nov. We argue that, like most extant members of Platylepas, †P. mediterranea sp. nov. lived partially embedded in the skin of a sea turtle. This record of an extinct platylepadid – the first from the Mediterranean region and the second worldwide – pushes back the fossil record of Platylepadidae to the lowermost Quaternary, thus possibly supporting an even earlier (e.g., Neogene) timing for the origin of this family and adding a new chapter to the evolutionary history of one of the most diverse and successful lineages of epizoic crustaceans.


Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3546 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
YING-YONG WANG ◽  
TIAN-DU ZHANG ◽  
JIAN ZHAO ◽  
YIK-HEI SUNG ◽  
JIAN-HUAN YANG ◽  
...  

A new species, Xenophrys jinggangensis sp. nov., is described based on a series of specimens collected from Mount Jing-gang, Jiangxi Province, Eastern China. The new species can be easily distinguished from other known congeners by mor-phology, morphometrics and molecular data of the mitochondrial 16SrRNA gene. The new species is characterized by itssmall size with adult females measuring 38.4–41.6 mm in snout-vent length and males measuring 35.1–36.7 mm; headlength approximately equal to head width; tympanum large and distinct, about 0.8 times of eye diameter; vomerine teethon two weak ridges; tongue not notched behind; relative finger length II < I < IV < III; slight lateral fringes present ondigits; toes bases with thick, fleshy web; dorsum with tubercles and swollen dorsolateral folds; large pustules scattered on flanks; and unique color patterns. The new species represents the thirty-first known Xenophrys in China.


2019 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guadalupe Bribiesca-Contreras ◽  
Tania Pineda-Enríquez ◽  
Francisco Márquez-Borrás ◽  
Francisco A. Solís-Marín ◽  
Heroen Verbruggen ◽  
...  

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