An underground burst of diversity – a new look at the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Talpa Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Talpidae) as revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial genes |
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Authors: | Anna A Bannikova Elena D Zemlemerova Paolo Colangelo Mustafa Sözen M Sevindik Artem A Kidov Ruslan I Dzuev Boris Kry?tufek Vladimir S Lebedev |
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Institution: | 1. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia;2. Department of Biology and Biotechnology ‘Charles Darwin’, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Roma, Italy;3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Bülent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey;4. Depertment of Zoology, Russian State Agrarian University – Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, Moscow, Russia;5. Kabardino‐Balkarian State University, Nalchik, Russia;6. Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Ljubljana, Slovenia;7. Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia |
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Abstract: | Using both nuclear and mitochondrial sequences, we demonstrate high genetic differentiation in the genus Talpa and confirm the existence of cryptic species in the Caucasus and Anatolia, namely, T. talyschensis Vereschagin, 1945, T. ognevi Stroganov, 1948, and Talpa ex gr. levantis. Our data support four clades in the genus Talpa that showed strong geographical associations. The ‘europaea’ group includes six species from the western portion of the genus' range (T. europaea, T. occidentalis, T. romana, T. caeca, T. stankovici, and T. levantis s.l.); another three groups are distributed further east: the ‘caucasica’ group (Caucasus), the ‘davidiana’ group (eastern Anatolia and Elburz) and T. altaica (Siberia). The phylogenetic position of T. davidiana was highlighted for the first time. The order of basal branching remains controversial, which can be attributed to rapid diversification events. The molecular time estimates based on nuclear concatenation estimated the basal divergence of the crown Talpa during the latest Miocene. A putative scenario of Talpa radiation and issues of species delimitation are discussed. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London |
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Keywords: | Caucasus cryptic diversity mole molecular dating nuclear genes phylogenetics species delimitation Turkey |
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