Abstract
Abstract Two isolated and taxonomically unassigned populations of short-tailed shrews (Blarina) exist in Texas, 1 in the Lost Pines region including Bastrop County and 1 at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast. Molecular and morphological methods were used to determine the systematic status of the 2 disjunct Texas populations. Multivariate analyses of size-influenced cranial measurements were unsuccessful in identifying specimens from these populations at the species level. Phylogenetic analyses of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene revealed that the samples from disjunct Texas populations form a monophyletic sister clade to B. hylophaga from Kansas and Nebraska; there is little divergence between the 2 Texas populations. Genetic divergence between Texas and Kansas–Nebraska B. hylophaga is comparable to taxonomically recognized east–west divisions within B. brevicauda and B. carolinensis. Therefore, the name Blarina hylophaga plumbea, which originally was applied to the Aransas County popul...
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