Abstract
Rodents from the subfamily Gerbillinae Gray, 1825, are an important component of small fauna in arid and desertic regions in Africa and Asia. Among this group of rodents, Sundevall’s jird, Meriones crassus, is one of the most widespread desert species, found in countries ranging from Morocco to Pakistan. In this study, we sequenced the cytochrome b gene of the mitochondrial DNA in two specimens captured in Morocco, constituting the first genetic identification for this species in the African continent. Molecular identification was complemented and supported with morphological evidence. Additionally, we propose the hypothesis of a northward extension of 250 km of the geographic distribution of Sundevall’s jird in Morocco, perhaps indicating the increasing desertification affecting North Africa. Further evidence will be required to test the latter hypothesis. Dataset published through Zenodo (Doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4674889)
Highlights
Jirds from the genus Meriones Illiger, 1811 are a group of relatively large and heavily–built Gerbillinae rodents distributed from North Africa to Mongolia
For the sake of comparison, we examined the external body and skull features of genetically confirmed Meriones specimens from Morocco
For the sake of simplicity, we present only the phylogenetic tree originating from the maximum likelihood analysis in Figure 4, but specify Bayesian posterior probabilities
Summary
Jirds from the genus Meriones Illiger, 1811 are a group of relatively large and heavily–built Gerbillinae rodents distributed from North Africa to Mongolia This genus comprises 16 species, but only three species are generally recognized in the African continent: Sundevall's jird Meriones crassus Sundevall, 1842; the Libyan jird M. libycus Lichtenstein, 1823; and Shaw's jird M. shawii Duvernoy, 1842 (Fichet–Calvet, 2013). This latter taxon is structured as a species complex and is separated by some authors into two distinct species: M. shawii and M. grandis Cabrera, 1907 (Denys et al, 2017). M. shawii is found mainly in areas with a Mediterranean climate in the North and in agroecosystems, but a sympatry with M. crassus is possible in the southernmost margins of the distribution of M. shawii (Aulagnier et al, 2017)
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