A new genus of rodent from Wallacea (Rodentia: Muridae: Murinae: Rattini), and its implication for biogeography and Indo-Pacific Rattini systematics

Abstract

We describe Halmaheramys bokimekot Fabre, Pagès, Musser, Fitriana, Semiadi & Helgen gen. et sp. nov., a new genus and species of murine rodent from the North Moluccas, and study its phylogenetic placement using both molecular and morphological data. We generated a densely sampled mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data set that included most genera of Indo-Pacific Murinae, and used probabilistic methodologies to infer their phylogenetic relationships. To reconstruct their biogeographical history, we first dated the topology and then used a Lagrange analysis to infer ancestral geographic areas. Finally, we combined the ancestral area reconstructions with temporal information to compare patterns of murine colonization among Indo-Pacific archipelagos. We provide a new and comprehensive molecular phylogenetic reconstruction for Indo-Pacific Murinae, with a focus on the Rattus division. Using previous results and those presented in this study, we define a new Indo-Pacific group within the Rattus division, composed of Bullimus, Bunomys, Paruromys, Halmaheramys, Sundamys, and Taeromys. Our phylogenetic reconstructions revealed a relatively recent diversification from the Middle Miocene to Plio-Pleistocene associated with several major dispersal events. We identified two independent Indo-Pacific dispersal events from both western and eastern Indo-Pacific archipelagos to the isolated island of Halmahera, which led to the speciations of H. bokimekot gen. et sp. nov. and Rattus morotaiensis Kellogg, 1945. We propose that a Middle Miocene collision between the Halmahera and Sangihe arcs may have been responsible for the arrival of the ancestor of Halmaheramys to eastern Wallacea. Halmaheramys bokimekot gen. et sp. nov. is described in detail, and its systematics and biogeography are documented and illustrated.

High resolution images for 'A systematic review of Sulawesi Bunomys (Muridae, Murinae) with the description of two new species. (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 392)'

“…That phylogenetic cluster is most closely related to Halmaheramys bokimekot, a newly discovered Moluccan endemic. Both of those clades connect phylogenetically to an assemblage containing Philippine Bullimus and Sundaic Sundamys (Fabre et al, 2013). The alliance of Bunomys with Paruromys, Sundamys, and Bullimus is also substantiated by Fabre et al (2012) and Schenk et al [2013] using DNA sequences, and the association of Bunomys with Taeromys, Paruromys, and Sundamys was earlier postulated by Misonne (1969: 140) based on molar cusp patterns.…”

“…The strong morphometric link between B. chrysocomus and B. coelestis appeared in several Mahalanobis distance cluster analyses that I generated when samples from all species of Bunomys were compared ( fig. 21), and when samples of all species of Bunomys were compared with samples of Paruromys dominator and all species of Taeromys (not illustrated)-the latter two genera and Bunomys are part of the same Sulawesian clade as indicated by analyses of DNA sequences (Fabre et al, 2013). The large-bodied B. prolatus and B. torajae are phenetically closely related montane isolates.…”

“…Stenomys is currently treated as a synonym of Rattus, its former contents have been subsumed within a ''Rattus leucopus species group'' containing species endemic to the Moluccas and the Australia-New Guinea region (Musser and Carleton, 2005;Rowe et al, 2011), and DNA sequences place those species in a clade separate and distant from a Bunomys-Paruromys-Taeromys clade (Fabre et al, 2013).…”

Progress on research on rodents and rodent-borne zoonoses in South-east Asia

“…South-east Asia is a hot spot of rodent diversification (Steppan et al 2003;Robins et al 2010;Fabre et al 2013;Latinne et al 2013b;Thomson et al 2014). Within the Murinae, the Rattini tribe (Lecompte et al 2008) encompasses 35 genera and 167 rat species (Musser and Carleton 2005).…”

Two new species of Trichuris (Nematoda: Trichuridae) collected from endemic murines of Indonesia

“…Indonesia is known as an area with very high diversity of murines with more than 170 species, especially many endemic species in Sulawesi and Papua Indonesia (=West New Guinea) (Suyanto et al, 1998;Musser & Carleton, 2005;Fabre et al, 2013). These endemic species are classified into old endemics and new endemics.…”