scholarly journals Morphology captures diet and locomotor types in rodents

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 160957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis D. Verde Arregoitia ◽  
Diana O. Fisher ◽  
Manuel Schweizer
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Morphological Similarity ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Relatedness ◽  
Ecological Relevance ◽  
Ecological Literature ◽  
Close Relatives

To understand the functional meaning of morphological features, we need to relate what we know about morphology and ecology in a meaningful, quantitative framework. Closely related species usually share more phenotypic features than distant ones, but close relatives do not necessarily have the same ecologies. Rodents are the most diverse group of living mammals, with impressive ecomorphological diversification. We used museum collections and ecological literature to gather data on morphology, diet and locomotion for 208 species of rodents from different bioregions to investigate how morphological similarity and phylogenetic relatedness are associated with ecology. After considering differences in body size and shared evolutionary history, we find that unrelated species with similar ecologies can be characterized by a well-defined suite of morphological features. Our results validate the hypothesized ecological relevance of the chosen traits. These cranial, dental and external (e.g. ears) characters predicted diet and locomotion and showed consistent differences among species with different feeding and substrate use strategies. We conclude that when ecological characters do not show strong phylogenetic patterns, we cannot simply assume that close relatives are ecologically similar. Museum specimens are valuable records of species' phenotypes and with the characters proposed here, morphology can reflect functional similarity, an important component of community ecology and macroevolution.

scholarly journals A test of Darwin's naturalization conundrum in birds reveals enhanced invasion success in presence of close relatives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Sol ◽  
Joan Garcia-Porta ◽  
César González-Lagos ◽  
Alex Pigot ◽  
Joseph Tobias ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
First Century ◽  
Random Pattern ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Relatedness ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Close Relatives

Despite biological invasions are one of the main environmental problems of the twenty-first century, there is still no theoretical or empirical agreement on whether a high phylogenetic relatedness between exotic and native species positively or negatively affect invasion success. To resolve this conundrum, it has been proposed that the effect might be scale-dependent, being negative at smaller spatial scales and positive at larger scales. Here we show that this scale-dependent pattern may be a sampling artefact associated with species-area effects and a non-random pattern of species introductions. We support this conclusion with simulations and empirical data on invaded and non-invaded avian communities in regions from five continents. We further show that at smaller-scales —where these artifacts are negligible— invasion success generally increases with the presence of closely-related species, but that predictive accuracy largely depends on considering the influence of human-related disturbances in facilitating invasions.

Two new Hypomyces associated with boletoid fungi in China

Phytotaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 516 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-42
Author(s):  
XIN GU ◽  
RONG FU ◽  
RUI WANG ◽  
JING-ZU SUN
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Sichuan Province ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Fungicolous Fungi ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
Shape And Size

During an investigation of fungicolous fungi associated with mushrooms in China, four boleticolous fungi were collected from Sichuan Province. Based on the morphological features and multi-gene phylogenetic analyses this study introduces two new species, Hypomyces ampullaris, and H. sichuanensis. The new species are described and illustrated comprehensively and compared with their related fungi. Hypomyces ampullaris is similar to Sepedonium ampullosporum in forming candelabrum-like conidiophores and producing ampulliform conidia but differs from the latter in having shorter phialides and smaller ampulloconidia. Hypomyces sichuanensis is similar to H. chrysospermus, H. microspermus, and Sepedonium laevigatum in forming poorly developed verticills conidiophores and the shape and size of aleurioconidia. However, the asexual spores of H. sichuanensis averaged somewhat smaller than those of H. chrysospermus and S. laevigatum, and larger than that of H. microspermus. Additionally, H. ampullaris and H. sichuanensis distinct from their close relatives in no pigment discoloration of the PDA medium. These species introduced here, improve our understanding of the diversity of Hypomyces, especially of the boleticolous Hypomyces in China.

scholarly journals Transposable Elements and the Evolution of Insects

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 355-372
Author(s):  
Clément Gilbert ◽  
Jean Peccoud ◽  
Richard Cordaux
Keyword(s):  
Transposable Elements ◽  
Related Species ◽  
Horizontal Transfer ◽  
Population Genomics ◽  
Antiviral Immunity ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Relatedness ◽  
Functional Studies ◽  
Insect Symbionts

Insects are major contributors to our understanding of the interaction between transposable elements (TEs) and their hosts, owing to seminal discoveries, as well as to the growing number of sequenced insect genomes and population genomics and functional studies. Insect TE landscapes are highly variable both within and across insect orders, although phylogenetic relatedness appears to correlate with similarity in insect TE content. This correlation is unlikely to be solely due to inheritance of TEs from shared ancestors and may partly reflect preferential horizontal transfer of TEs between closely related species. The influence of insect traits on TE landscapes, however, remains unclear. Recent findings indicate that, in addition to being involved in insect adaptations and aging, TEs are seemingly at the cornerstone of insect antiviral immunity. Thus, TEs are emerging as essential insect symbionts that may have deleterious or beneficial consequences on their hosts, depending on context.

scholarly journals Recovery of skeletal elements and extended wing from a mounted specimen of the nearly extinct Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

2018 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Pavia ◽  
Gion Boano
Keyword(s):  
Critically Endangered ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Extinct Species ◽  
The World

The Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) is a very rare Palaearctic Scolopacidae, classified Critically Endangered by the IUCN, with the last accepted record in 2001. In the museum collections, it is commonly preserved with mounted specimens and study skins, but only two skeletons have been reported in the world. Here we present the re-preparation of a mounted specimen from the collection of the Museo di Zoologia of the Torino University in order to obtain as much osteological material as possible. This practice, especially with rare or extinct species, is recommended in different papers to maximize the value of the museum specimens and remedy the lack of skeletal elements of very rare or extinct species.

scholarly journals Phylogenomics Reveals Clear Cases of Misclassification and Genus-Wide Phylogenetic Markers for Acinetobacter

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2531-2541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Mateo-Estrada ◽  
Lucía Graña-Miraglia ◽  
Gamaliel López-Leal ◽  
Santiago Castillo-Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus ◽  
Recent Attempt ◽  
Evolutionary Relationships ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Acinetobacter Baumannii Complex ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Clear Cases

Abstract The Gram-negative Acinetobacter genus has several species of clear medical relevance. Many fully sequenced genomes belonging to the genus have been published in recent years; however, there has not been a recent attempt to infer the evolutionary history of Acinetobacter with that vast amount of information. Here, through a phylogenomic approach, we established the most up-to-date view of the evolutionary relationships within this genus and highlighted several cases of poor classification, especially for the very closely related species within the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus–Acinetobacter baumannii complex (Acb complex). Furthermore, we determined appropriate phylogenetic markers for this genus and showed that concatenation of the top 13 gives a very decent reflection of the evolutionary relationships for the genus Acinetobacter. The intersection between our top markers and previously defined universal markers is very small. In general, our study shows that, although there seems to be hardly any universal markers, bespoke phylogenomic approaches can be used to infer the phylogeny of different bacterial genera. We expect that ad hoc phylogenomic approaches will be the standard in the years to come and will provide enough information to resolve intricate evolutionary relationships like those observed in the Acb complex.

scholarly journals The phylogeny of Mediterranean tortoises and their close relatives based on complete mitochondrial genome sequences from museum specimens

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Parham ◽  
J. Robert Macey ◽  
Theodore J. Papenfuss ◽  
Chris R. Feldman ◽  
Oguz Türkozan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Genome ◽  
Complete Mitochondrial Genome ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Close Relatives

Description of ten tadpoles in the genus Boophis from Madagascar

Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2694 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAHIRY RASOLONJATOVO HIOBIARILANTO ◽  
ROGER-DANIEL RANDRIANIAINA ◽  
JULIAN GLOS ◽  
AXEL STRAUß ◽  
MIGUEL VENCES
Keyword(s):  
Dna Barcoding ◽  
Related Species ◽  
Lower Number ◽  
Sister Species ◽  
Morphological Similarity ◽  
Additional Species ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Species Groups ◽  
First Time

We provide morphological descriptions of the tadpoles of ten species of Malagasy treefrogs of the genus Boophis (family Mantellidae). Based on individuals determined by DNA barcoding, the larvae of eight species are described for the first time: B. anjanaharibeensis, B. axelmeyeri, B. elenae, B. englaenderi, B. luciae, B. rhodoscelis, B. roseipalmatus, and B. vittatus. For two additional species, B. andreonei and B. microtympanum, we provide descriptions from other localities than the previously known larvae. All tadpoles described herein are stream-adapted, exotrophic, and of a relatively generalized morphology. In general, we found a morphological similarity of larvae belonging to phenetic species groups of Boophis, but more detailed analyses showed several differences between taxa that are known to be sister species or closely related to each other: B. luciae has a much higher number of oral papillae than B. sibilans, B. roseipalmatus has a slightly lower number of papillae and possibly a stronger caudal musculature than B. madagascariensis, and B. elenae has a distinctly lower number of oral papillae and keratodonts in the first upper keratodont row than B. sandrae. This indicates that tadpole characters might, in some cases, provide good taxonomic characters in Boophis, a genus in which adults of closely related species are often morphologically extremely similar.

Genetic variation for monomer–dimer equilibria of esterase-5 in Drosophila pseudoobscura, Drosophila persimilis, and Drosophila miranda

1984 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Townsend ◽  
Rama S. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Electrophoretic Mobility ◽  
Enzyme Stability ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Drosophila Pseudoobscura ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Speciation Event ◽  
Population Polymorphism ◽  
Drosophila Persimilis ◽  
Close Relatives

Esterase-5 is a highly polymorphic enzyme in Drosophila pseudoobscura and its close relatives. Numerous alleles have been identified by employing a number of physicochemical properties of the enzyme (e.g. electrophoretic mobility, enzyme stability, subunit dimerization, and variation in monomer–dimer equilibrium). Variation in the monomer–dimer equilibrium of esterase-5 leads to differences in electrophoretic mobility of monomers produced by dimers all of which have the same mobility. In this report we have used this criterion to study variation within, as well as between, four closely related species: D. pseudoobscura pseudoobscura, D. pseudoobscura bogotana. D. persimilis, and D. miranda. All lines were characterized for esterase-5 monomer and dimer mobility at a number of gel concentrations and the comparison was made by plotting log10 monomer – dimer mobility as a function of gel concentration. No variation was found within D. p. pseudoobscura or D. p. bogotana but some variation (two distinct alleles) did occur in D. persimilis. Drosophila miranda is segregating for two alleles, one of which is fixed in D. pseudoobscura and the other one is common in D. persimilis. Thus it seems that the variation in monomer–dimer equilibrium is a rather conservative criterion and that the variation in D. miranda is a good deal older than the speciation event(s) which gave rise to D. miranda and the lineage leading to D. pseudoobscura and D. persimilis.Key words: esterase-5, Drosophila pseudoobscura, monomer–dimer equilibrium, population, polymorphism, speciation, electrophoresis.

Shedding new light on old species identifications: morphological and genetic evidence suggest a need for conservation status review of the critically endangered bat, Saccolaimus saccolaimus

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian J. Milne ◽  
Felicity C. Jackling ◽  
Manpreet Sidhu ◽  
Belinda R. Appleton
Keyword(s):  
Threatened Species ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Critically Endangered ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Species Classification ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
Identification Of Species ◽  
Vital Component

Information based on the accurate identification of species is a vital component for achieving successful outcomes of biodiversity conservation and management. It is difficult to manage species that are poorly known or that are misidentified with other similar species. This is particularly problematic for rare and threatened species. Species that are listed under endangered species classification schemes need to be identified accurately and categorised correctly so that conservation efforts are appropriately allocated. In Australia, the emballonurid Saccolaimus saccolaimus is currently listed as ‘Critically Endangered’. On the basis of new observations and existing museum specimens, we used a combination of genetic (mitochondrial DNA sequence) and morphological (pelage characteristics, dig III : phalanx I length ratio, inter-upper canine distance) analyses to identify six new geographic records for S. saccolaimus, comprising ~100 individuals. Our analyses also suggested that there are likely to be more records in museum collections misidentified as S. flaviventris specimens. The external morphological similarities to S. flaviventris were addressed and genetic, morphological and echolocation analyses were used in an attempt to provide diagnostic characters that can be used to readily identify the two species in the field. We recommend genetic testing of all museum specimens of Australian Saccolaimus to clarify species’ distributions and provide data for reassessing the conservation status for both S. saccolaimus and S. flaviventris. Museum curators, taxonomists and wildlife managers need to be aware of potential species misidentifications, both in the field and laboratory. Misidentifications that result in misclassification of both threatened and non-threatened species can have significant implications.

scholarly journals Ottelia fengshanensis, a new bisexual species of Ottelia (Hydrocharitaceae) from southwestern China

PhytoKeys ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Zhi-Zhong Li ◽  
Shuang Wu ◽  
Chun-Yu Zhou ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Guang-Wan Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Species Delimitation ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Bisexual Species ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Dark Green ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
A New Species

Ottelia fengshanensis, a new species (Hydrocharitaceae) from southwest China is here described and illustrated. Comparing its morphological features to putative close relatives O. guanyangensis, it has 3–4 flowers (vs. 2–5) each spathe, hexagonal-cylindric fruit, white styles (vs. yellow), green leaves (vs. dark green) and fruit tiny winged (vs. winged obviously). Molecular phylogenetic investigation of four DNA sequences (ITS, rbcL, trnK5’ intron and trnS-trnG) and the Poisson Tree Processes model for species delimitation (PTP) analysis, further resolves O. fengshanensis as a new species that is close to O. guanyangensis with distinct support.

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