Abstract
BackgroundCrocidura, the most speciose mammalian genus, occurs across much of Asia, Europe and Africa. The taxonomy of Chinese representatives has been studied primarily based on cursory morphological comparisons and their molecular phylogenetic analyses remain unexplored. In order to understand the phylogeny of this group in China, we estimated the first multilocus phylogeny and conducted species delimitation, including taxon sampling throughout their distribution range.ResultsWe obtained one mitochondrial gene (cytb) (~ 1, 134 bp) and three nuclear genes (ApoB, BRCA1, RAG1) (~ 2, 170 bp) for 132 samples from 57 localities. Molecular analyses identified at least 14 putative species that occur within two major well-supported groups in China. Polyphyletic C. wuchihensis appears to be composed of two putative species. Two subspecies, C. rapax rapax and C. rapax kurodai should be elevated to full species status. A phylogenetic tree based on mitochondrial gene from Asian Crocidura species showed that the C. rapax rapax is embedded within C. attenuata, making the latter a paraphyletic group. Three strongly supported undescribed species (C. sp.1, C. sp.2 and C. sp.3) are revealed from Zada County of Tibet (Western China), Hongjiang County of Hunan Province (Central China) and Dongyang County of Zhejiang Province (Eastern China), Motuo County of Tibet, respectively. The divergence time estimation suggested that China’s Crocidura species began to diversify during the late Pliocene (3.66 Ma) and the Early Pleistocene (2.29 Ma), followed by a series of diversifications through the Pleistocene.ConclusionsThe cryptic diversity found in this study indicated that the number of species is strongly underestimated under the current taxonomy. We propose that the three undescribed species should be evaluated using extensive taxon sampling and comprehensive morphological and morphometric approaches. Climate change since the late Pliocene and the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may result in the diversification and speciation of China’s Crocidura species. In short, the underestimated diversity underlines the need for a taxonomic revision of Chinese Crocidura species.
Highlights
Crocidura, the most speciose mammalian genus, occurs across much of Asia, Europe and Africa
Phylogenetic analyses and molecular divergence times The phylogenies estimated by RAxML and BEAST were similar to each other for the first three molecular datasets, and only the Bayesian Inference (BI) gene trees are shown (Fig. 2abc)
What factors are responsible for the rapid diversification of Chinese Crocidura distributed? We propose that climate change and rapid uplifting of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may have driven the diversification of Chinese Crocidura
Summary
The most speciose mammalian genus, occurs across much of Asia, Europe and Africa. Crocidura is the most speciose genus of all mammalian genera. Its 172 species occur broadly across much of Asia, Europe and Africa [1]. In China, species of Crocidura are among the most poorly understood mammals. The main challenge for taxonomy of Chinese Crocidura is the lack of available specimens. There are at least 19 recorded species and subspecies of Crocidura (Table 1). The taxonomic status and the number of species of Chinese Crocidura have changed over time (Table 1). Hutterer (1993) considered there were only 6 Crocidura species in China [6]. The current taxonomy recognizes 11 or 10 species [7, 8]
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