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Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador

The Andean cloud forests of Ecuador are home to several endemic mammals. Members of the Thomasomyini rodents are well represented in the Andes, with Thomasomys being the largest genus (47 species) of the subfamily Sigmodontinae. Within this tribe, however, there are genera that have escaped a taxono...

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Autores principales: Brito, Jorge, Tinoco, Nicolás, Pinto, C. Miguel, García, Rubí, Koch, Claudia, Fernandez, Vincent, Burneo, Santiago, Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9029390/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35462758
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13211
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author Brito, Jorge
Tinoco, Nicolás
Pinto, C. Miguel
García, Rubí
Koch, Claudia
Fernandez, Vincent
Burneo, Santiago
Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J.
author_facet Brito, Jorge
Tinoco, Nicolás
Pinto, C. Miguel
García, Rubí
Koch, Claudia
Fernandez, Vincent
Burneo, Santiago
Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J.
author_sort Brito, Jorge
collection PubMed
description The Andean cloud forests of Ecuador are home to several endemic mammals. Members of the Thomasomyini rodents are well represented in the Andes, with Thomasomys being the largest genus (47 species) of the subfamily Sigmodontinae. Within this tribe, however, there are genera that have escaped a taxonomic revision, and Chilomys Thomas, 1897, constitutes a paradigmatic example of these “forgotten” Andean cricetids. Described more than a century ago, current knowledge of this externally unmistakable montane rodent is very limited, and doubts persist as to whether or not it is monotypic. After several years of field efforts in Ecuador, a considerable quantity of specimens of Chilomys were collected from various localities representing both Andean chains. Based on an extensive genetic survey of the obtained material, we can demonstrate that what is currently treated as C. instans in Ecuador is a complex comprising at least five new species which are described in this paper. In addition, based on these noteworthy new evidence, we amend the generic diagnosis in detail, adding several key craniodental traits such as incisor procumbency and microdonty. These results indicate that Chilomys probably has a hidden additional diversity in large parts of the Colombian and Peruvian territories, inviting a necessary revision of the entire genus.
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spelling pubmed-90293902022-04-23 Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador Brito, Jorge Tinoco, Nicolás Pinto, C. Miguel García, Rubí Koch, Claudia Fernandez, Vincent Burneo, Santiago Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J. PeerJ Biodiversity The Andean cloud forests of Ecuador are home to several endemic mammals. Members of the Thomasomyini rodents are well represented in the Andes, with Thomasomys being the largest genus (47 species) of the subfamily Sigmodontinae. Within this tribe, however, there are genera that have escaped a taxonomic revision, and Chilomys Thomas, 1897, constitutes a paradigmatic example of these “forgotten” Andean cricetids. Described more than a century ago, current knowledge of this externally unmistakable montane rodent is very limited, and doubts persist as to whether or not it is monotypic. After several years of field efforts in Ecuador, a considerable quantity of specimens of Chilomys were collected from various localities representing both Andean chains. Based on an extensive genetic survey of the obtained material, we can demonstrate that what is currently treated as C. instans in Ecuador is a complex comprising at least five new species which are described in this paper. In addition, based on these noteworthy new evidence, we amend the generic diagnosis in detail, adding several key craniodental traits such as incisor procumbency and microdonty. These results indicate that Chilomys probably has a hidden additional diversity in large parts of the Colombian and Peruvian territories, inviting a necessary revision of the entire genus. PeerJ Inc. 2022-04-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9029390/ /pubmed/35462758 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13211 Text en © 2022 Brito et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Brito, Jorge
Tinoco, Nicolás
Pinto, C. Miguel
García, Rubí
Koch, Claudia
Fernandez, Vincent
Burneo, Santiago
Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J.
Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador
title Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador
title_full Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador
title_fullStr Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador
title_full_unstemmed Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador
title_short Unlocking Andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of Chilomys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) from the montane forests of Ecuador
title_sort unlocking andean sigmodontine diversity: five new species of chilomys (rodentia: cricetidae) from the montane forests of ecuador
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9029390/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35462758
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13211
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