{"title":"A new species of Ctenomys (Rodentia, Ctenomyidae) from the pre-Andean regions of Mendoza Province, Argentina","authors":"Mauro N Tammone","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae024","url":null,"abstract":"The genus Ctenomys (Rodentia: Hystricomorpha) includes an impressive diversity of species, all of which have evolved in southern South America. The number of recognized species is currently approaching 70. During the last few decades, taxonomic revisions and new field collections have resulted in both the description of new species and the synonymization of others, suggesting that much of the alpha taxonomy of Ctenomys remains unresolved, particularly when considering the vast areas of distribution that are still unsampled. Both phylogeographic patterns and the fossil record suggest that the Andean Cordillera has played a critical role in the diversification of the genus. Building upon recent, intensive field sampling in the Andean and pre-Andean regions of southern Mendoza Province, I integrated molecular and morphological data to evaluate the taxonomic status of populations of Ctenomys in this region. These analyses revealed a taxonomically-diverse Ctenomys assemblage within which here I provide the description for a new species. Available data indicate that this new species is endemic to southern portions of Mendoza Province, a geographic region that represents the confluence of 3 lineages ‘magellanicus,’ ‘maulinus,’ and ‘mendocinus,’ and that it is thus an area of particular importance for the conservation of these rodents.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"206 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140570301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David J Hafner, Jessica E Light, Sean A Neiswenter, Krymsen L Hernandez, Brett R Riddle
{"title":"Phylogeography, systematics, and conservation status of pocket mice (Chaetodipus) of the Sonoran–Sinaloan thorn forest","authors":"David J Hafner, Jessica E Light, Sean A Neiswenter, Krymsen L Hernandez, Brett R Riddle","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyad125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyad125","url":null,"abstract":"Three species of pocket mice (Chaetodipus artus, C. goldmani, and C. pernix) characterize the Sinaloan subregion of the Sonoran regional desert. They occur primarily in Sinaloan thornscrub and monsoon (dry deciduous) forest biotic communities, both of which have suffered from agricultural conversion. Sinaloan thornscrub occurs along the coastal plains of southern Sonora and Sinaloa, México, and grades into monsoon forest in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental. We describe the geographical and ecological distributions of the 3 species of Chaetodipus, evaluate evolutionary relationships within each species based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, and compare these to previously described phenetic, allozymic, and chromosomal variation. We elevate the subspecies of C. pernix to full species, delineate evolutionary units within C. goldmani and C. artus that we formally recognize as subspecies, and evaluate the conservation status of all 3 species of Chaetodipus.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"121 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140570296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christoffel J de Lange, Olivier Bonnet, Adrian M Shrader
{"title":"Effect of rainfall on white rhino calf survival depends on home range choice of the mother","authors":"Christoffel J de Lange, Olivier Bonnet, Adrian M Shrader","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae028","url":null,"abstract":"Within African savannas, seasonal rainfall influences the survival of mammalian grazers by determining the availability and quality of food. The strength of these effects may, however, vary depending on the availability of reserve and buffer resources within the home range of an individual. From 1999 to 2019, 24% of the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) calves born in Ithala Game Reserve died without a known cause. To explore this, we investigated the impacts of seasonal rainfall on calf survival, and whether these relationships were modified by the availability of woodlands (i.e., reserve resources) and bunch grasslands (i.e., buffer resources) within the home ranges established by the mothers. We found that nearly all of the deceased calves died during their first dry season after weaning had commenced. The likelihood of a calf surviving this period was positively influenced by rainfall during the dry season and negatively influenced by its duration. However, these effects were more pronounced when the availability of woodlands within the home range of the mother was high. Ultimately, calf deaths were caused by a combination of low dry season rainfall, long dry seasons, and the selection of home ranges with insufficient bunch grasslands by some mothers. With climate change models predicting increased dry season durations and a reduction in dry season rainfall, our results highlight future challenges for the conservation of white rhinos and other large herbivores.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"117 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140570289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Woei Jiun Tan, Scott Carver, Alynn M Martin, Nicholas M Fountain-Jones, Kirstin M Proft, Christopher P Burridge
{"title":"Sex and landscape influence spatial genetic variation in a large fossorial mammal, the Bare-nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)","authors":"Woei Jiun Tan, Scott Carver, Alynn M Martin, Nicholas M Fountain-Jones, Kirstin M Proft, Christopher P Burridge","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae017","url":null,"abstract":"Dispersal is an important process that is widely studied across species, and it can be influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors commonly assessed include the sex and age of individuals, while landscape features are frequently-tested extrinsic factors. Here, we investigated the effects of both sex and landscape composition and configuration on genetic distances among bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus)—one of the largest fossorial mammals in the world and subject to habitat fragmentation, threats from disease, and human persecution including culling as an agricultural pest. We analyzed a data set comprising 74 Tasmanian individuals (30 males and 44 females), genotyped for 9,064 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We tested for sex-biased dispersal and the influence of landscape features on genetic distances including land use, water, vegetation, elevation, and topographic ruggedness. We detected significant female-biased dispersal, which may be related to females donating burrows to their offspring due to the energetic cost of excavation, given their large body sizes. Land use, waterbodies, and elevation appeared to be significant landscape predictors of genetic distance. Land use potentially reflects land clearing and persecution over the last 200 years. If our findings based on a limited sample size are valid, retention and restoration of nonanthropogenic landscapes in which wombats can move and burrow may be important for gene flow and maintenance of genetic diversity.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140313626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diurnal activity in an insectivorous bat during migration period","authors":"Radek K Lučan, Tomáš Bartonička","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae006","url":null,"abstract":"Diurnal flight activity in otherwise strictly nocturnal bats has typically been linked to random disturbance from day roosts, an urgent need to balance food shortage caused by adverse weather during nighttime, or the absence of diurnal predators. However, migration may be another reason why bats fly during daylight, at least in some areas. Using community-science data collection, we obtained more than 500 records of over 15,000 bats displaying diurnal flight activity, suggesting that it is relatively common in Central Europe. The vast majority of sightings were of common noctules (Nyctalus noctula), with most records concentrated in spring and autumn. The seasonal dynamics of diurnal flights exactly coincided with migratory periods, and directional movements in autumn—when diurnal activity was most frequent and included highest numbers of observed bats—suggest that the behavior may ultimately be linked to migration ecology. The highest frequency of diurnal flights in autumn coincided with highest body mass in the studied territory, thereby refuting the hypothesis of early roost emergence due to poor body condition or decreased predation risk related to increased maneuverability. A shift from strictly nocturnal to partly diurnal activity may balance increased energetic demands imposed by migration, which is temporally synchronized with periods of cold nights when prey density is limited. Common noctule diurnal activity during the migratory period may be beneficial as they can acquire energy by foraging on daily abundant prey while saving nighttime for long endurance flights—alternatively, they may forage on the way to their migratory destination, thereby saving time. Predation risk from diurnal predators may be significantly decreased by choosing high flight altitudes, as observed particularly during autumn. We suggest that observations on the geographic distribution of diurnally flying noctules may help identify migration corridors.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"158 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140204699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vera de Ferran, Henrique Vieira Figueiró, Cristine Silveira Trinca, Pablo César Hernández-Romero, Gustavo P Lorenzana, Carla Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Eduardo Eizirik
{"title":"Genome-wide data support recognition of an additional species of Neotropical river otter (Mammalia, Mustelidae, Lutrinae)","authors":"Vera de Ferran, Henrique Vieira Figueiró, Cristine Silveira Trinca, Pablo César Hernández-Romero, Gustavo P Lorenzana, Carla Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Eduardo Eizirik","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae009","url":null,"abstract":"Cryptic biodiversity continues to be revealed worldwide, even in apparently well-known groups such as carnivorans. The Neotropical Otter (Lontra longicaudis) presents shape variation in its nose pad, a character that has been used to differentiate species in this group. Based on this, 3 subspecies are recognized: L. l. annectens (Mexico, Central America, and South America west of the Andes), L. l. enudris (Amazon and Orinoco basins), and L. l. longicaudis (Paraná basin and remaining distribution). Previous studies partially supported their distinctness based on mitochondrial DNA markers, morphometrics, and ecological niche modeling. We analyzed genome-wide nuclear markers (ultraconserved elements) of 29 L. longicaudis individuals across the species’ range to assess its population structure. Phylogenomic analysis recovered L. longicaudis as paraphyletic with robust support, with 1 clade comprising samples from Mexico and Colombia (trans-Andean populations) and another encompassing the remaining samples (cis-Andean populations), which grouped with 2 other South American species, L. felina and L. provocax. Principal component and admixture analyses strongly differentiated the 2 main L. longicaudis groups, and distinguished the Amazonian individuals from the remaining cis-Andean samples. Our results support the recognition of trans-Andean populations of L. longicaudis as a distinct otter species, which should be recognized as Lontra annectens.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140204486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Keegan R Selig, Malcolm S Ramsay, Rebecca Lahosky, Lauren Schroeder, Mary T Silcox
{"title":"Variation in dental morphology and dietary breadth in primates and their kin","authors":"Keegan R Selig, Malcolm S Ramsay, Rebecca Lahosky, Lauren Schroeder, Mary T Silcox","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae015","url":null,"abstract":"Sympatric animals may consume diets of differing breadths as a strategy to reduce competition. Studying patterns of dietary breadth in extinct taxa is difficult because available data are generally limited to morphology. Dental topographic analysis (DTA) is useful for comparing occlusal morphology and allows for examination of dietary adaptations in extinct taxa. What remains unknown is how dental morphology, quantified using DTA, covaries with dietary breadth. The niche variation hypothesis (NVH) posits that taxa with broader ecological niches will be characterized by greater variability in morphology relative to specialized taxa. Therefore, we predict that taxa with greater dietary breadth will have more varied dental morphology compared to specialists as a result of the molar morphology of specialists being under greater genetic control relative to generalists, with specialists requiring teeth specially adapted to efficiently process a smaller range of food sources. We measured curvature, complexity, and relief of the M2 of 3 pairs of closely related euarchontan mammals (primates and treeshrews), with each taxon within a pair categorized as a generalist or specialist. Our results indicate that generalists do not consistently show greater variability in dental morphology compared to specialists among primates, but that atelids and treeshrews do generally follow the predictions of the NVH, with the caveat that our treeshrew sample is small. This suggests that while dietary specialists may be under greater genetic constraint with respect to their molar topography, a link between dietary breadth and dental form is not clear. Our study demonstrates that variation in dental topography does not necessarily reflect dietary breadth and highlights the fact that it is difficult to categorize even the most specialized primates (i.e. bamboo lemurs) as “dietary specialists.”","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140204491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of MammalogyPub Date : 2024-03-07eCollection Date: 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyae005
Miranda K Theriot, Link E Olson, Hayley C Lanier
{"title":"Accounting for age: uncovering the nuanced drivers of mammal body-size responses to climate change.","authors":"Miranda K Theriot, Link E Olson, Hayley C Lanier","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae005","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Shifts in mean body size coinciding with environmental change are well documented across animal species and populations, serving as a widespread and complex indicator of climate-change response. In mammal research, identifying and disentangling the potential drivers of these trends (e.g., thermoregulation, resource availability) is hindered by treating adult size as fixed, ignoring morphological changes that occur throughout life in many species. However, observed population-level size trends may reflect underlying shifts in age structure (i.e., change in the proportion of older, potentially larger individuals in the population). Here, we assessed the role of age structure by explicitly evaluating age as a contributor to temporal variation in skull size (a proxy for body size) in 2 carnivorans, Canadian Lynx (<i>Lynx canadensis</i>) and American Marten (<i>Martes americana</i>). Using a series of linear and nonlinear models, we tested age in years (determined by cementum-layer analysis) as a predictor of skull size alongside other factors previously proposed to be important drivers of body-size trends, including population density for lynx and growing season conditions for martens. In both species, age was a significant predictor of skull size indicating a rapid year-to-year increase in young adult size that diminished in later adulthood. However, temporal shifts in age structure alone did not explain the observed changes in size over time, indicating that age structure acts in concert with other as-yet unidentified factors to drive body-size change. By explicitly evaluating the role of age, we can both refine models of temporal body-size trends and gain insights into size change as a signal of underlying demographic shifts-such as age-specific survivorship-providing a more holistic understanding of how mammals are responding to climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"105 3","pages":"512-523"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11491926/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142479420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elham Rezazadeh, Hessamodin Zali, Faraham Ahmadzadeh, Roohollah Siahsarvie, C William Kilpatrick, Ryan W Norris, Mansour Aliabadian
{"title":"Two new species of brush-tailed mouse, genus Calomyscus (Rodentia: Calomyscidae), from the Iranian Plateau","authors":"Elham Rezazadeh, Hessamodin Zali, Faraham Ahmadzadeh, Roohollah Siahsarvie, C William Kilpatrick, Ryan W Norris, Mansour Aliabadian","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyad116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyad116","url":null,"abstract":"The monogeneric family Calomyscidae includes the brush-tailed mice, genus Calomyscus, which have a Palearctic distribution ranging from the Hindu Kush Mountains in western Pakistan to the eastern Mediterranean region. Zagros Mountains—stretching from northwest to south of Iran—was assumed for long as the range of a single species, Calomyscus bailwardi; however, recent studies revealed considerable heterogeneities among the geographical populations presumably referring to the persistence of undescribed diversity. One such group from the western Zagros Mountains has recently been recognized as C. behzadi Akbarirad, Dezhman, Aliabadian, Siahsarvie, Shafaeipour, and Mirshamsi, 2021. Using molecular, morphometric, geometric morphometric, and karyotypic data, we examine the divergence of 2 additional groups from western Iran and name these as new species. The first of these species is distributed in the northern Zagros and western Alborz Mountains in northwestern Iran was recovered as the sister species to C. urartensis from the South Caucuses. The second species from a single locality in the central Zagros Mountains was clustered closely with C. grandis from the western Alborz Mountains. Morphologic analyses, karyological features, and genetic distances disentangled these 2 new species from their sister species.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140044139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erik M Andersen, Ryan R Wilson, Karyn D Rode, George M Durner, Todd C Atwood, David D Gustine
{"title":"The post-emergence period for denning polar bears: phenology and influence on cub survival","authors":"Erik M Andersen, Ryan R Wilson, Karyn D Rode, George M Durner, Todd C Atwood, David D Gustine","doi":"10.1093/jmammal/gyae010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyae010","url":null,"abstract":"Among polar bears (Ursus maritimus), only parturient females den for extended periods, emerging from maternal dens in spring after having substantially depleted their energy reserves during a fast that can exceed 8 months. Although den emergence coincides with a period of increasing prey availability, polar bears typically do not depart immediately to hunt, but instead remain at the den for up to a month. This delay suggests that there are likely adaptive advantages to remaining at the den between emergence and departure, but the influence of the timing and duration of this post-emergence period on cub survival has not been evaluated previously. We used temperature and location data from 70 denning bears collared within the Southern Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea subpopulations to estimate the phenology of the post-emergence period. We evaluated the influence of various spatial and temporal features on duration of the post-emergence period and evaluated the potential influence of post-emergence duration on litter survival early in the spring following denning. For dens that likely contained viable cubs at emergence (n = 56), mean den emergence occurred on 16 March (SE = 1.4 days) and mean departure on 24 March (SE = 1.6 days), with dates typically occurring later in the Chukchi Sea relative to Southern Beaufort Sea and on land relative to sea ice. Mean duration of the post-emergence period was 7.9 days (SE = 1.4) for bears that were observed with cubs later in the spring, which was over 4 times longer than duration of those observed without cubs (1.9 days). Litter survival in the spring following denning (n = 31 dens) increased from 0.5 to 0.9 when duration of the post-emergence period increased by ~4 days and other variables were held at mean values. Our limited sample size and inability to verify cub presence at emergence suggests that future research is merited to improve our understanding of this relationship. Nonetheless, our results highlight the importance of the post-emergence period in contributing to reproductive success and can assist managers in developing conservation and mitigation strategies in denning areas, which will be increasingly important as human activities expand in the Arctic.","PeriodicalId":50157,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Mammalogy","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}