TAXONOMIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOREX DISPAR AND S. GASPENSIS: INFERENCES FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES

The long-tailed shrew (Sorex dispar) occurs at upper elevations on wooded slopes in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina to Quebec. Size in long-tailed shrews is clinal, decreasing from south to north. A closely related species is the slightly smaller Gaspé shrew (Sorex gaspensis), known pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of mammalogy 2004-04, Vol.85 (2), p.331-337
Main Authors: Rhymer, Judith M., Barbay, Jessica M., Givens, Heather L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appalachian Mountains
Biological and medical sciences
Biological taxonomies
Classification
Clines
d-loop mitochondrial DNA sequence
DNA
FEATURE ARTICLES
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics
geographic variation
Haplotypes
latitudinal size cline
Mammalia
Mammalogy
Mammals
Mitochondrial DNA
Mountains
Otisorex
Phylogenetics
Shrews
Skull
Sorex dispar
Sorex gaspensis
Species at Risk
Tandem repeat sequences
Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution
Zoology
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Summary:The long-tailed shrew (Sorex dispar) occurs at upper elevations on wooded slopes in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina to Quebec. Size in long-tailed shrews is clinal, decreasing from south to north. A closely related species is the slightly smaller Gaspé shrew (Sorex gaspensis), known primarily from the Appalachians farther north in the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. Long-tailed shrews captured in northern Maine appear to fit within the size range of the Gaspé shrew which brings up the question: are these specimens small bodied long-tailed shrews at the northern end of their range, Gaspé shrews at the southern edge of their range, or are the 2 species part of the same continuous distribution and, in fact, conspecific? A morphological comparison with other studies indicates that a continuous cline cannot be ruled out. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA d-loop sequences showed that S. gaspensis and S. dispar cluster with no taxonomic or geographic structure, suggesting that they are conspecific.
ISSN:0022-2372
1545-1542
DOI:10.1644/BER-003