A New Species ofMonodelphis(Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

A new species of the didelphid marsupial genus Monodelphis is described from southeastern Brazil. The new species is closely related to Monodelphis kunsi Pine, 1975, and other members of the M. adusta group, but differs from those species and from other congeneric taxa by unique external and cranial characters and by cytochrome-b and nuclear DNA sequences. Diagnostic morphological characters of the new species include uniformly brownish dorsolateral pelage without distinct stripes or other sharp pigment discontinuities; diminutive eyes and ears; a remarkably long and narrow rostrum; apparent loss of an interparietal ossification; and the presence of diastemata between C1 and P1, P1 and P2, c1 and p1, p1 and p2, and p2 and p3. The new species is known from the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) of southeastern Brazil, where it occurs sympatrically with four other congeners (M. americana, M. iheringi, M. scalops, M. dimidiata) and seems to be restricted to montane habitats.

A Revised Subgeneric Classification of Short-Tailed Opossums (Didelphidae:Monodelphis)

“…Additionally, we summarize subgeneric patterns of distribution and sympatry consistent with our previously published biogeographic analyses (Pavan et al, 2016). 2013; Duda and Costa, 2015;Pavan, 2015) as well as other characters newly described herein. Descriptive terminology that we use to describe external and craniodental morphology in this report follows Cope (1880), Gregory (1910), Archer (1976), Wible (2003), and Jansa (2003, 2009).…”

“…However, such morphology-based subdivisions have contributed little but taxonomic confusion (Pine et al, 2013), and none is convincingly supported by character data. By contrast, recent molecular phylogenetic studies based on dense taxonomic sampling and multiple unlinked genes (Pavan et al, 2014;Vilela et al, 2015;Pavan et al, 2016) have consistently recovered several robustly supported multispecies clades (table 1), and some morphological studies (e.g., Voss et al, 2012;Pavan, 2015) suggest that at least some of the groups recovered by molecular phylogenetic research are morphologically diagnosable.…”

“…Monodelphis Burnett, 1830, is the most speciose genus of didelphid marsupials, with 22 currently recognized species (Pavan et al, 2014;Pavan, 2015). Insofar as known, species of Monodelphis are terrestrial or semifossorial, predominantly insectivorous opossums that exhibit conspicuous variation in pelage coloration, behavior, and reproductive strategies (Streilein, 1982a(Streilein, , 1982bEmmons and Feer, 1997;Pine et al, 1985;Pine and Handley, 2008).…”

“…To date there has been no comprehensive revision of the genus, and most relevant taxonomic publications have treated single species or species complexes (Pine, 1975(Pine, , 1976(Pine, , 1977(Pine, , 1980Pine and Handley, 1984;Pine et al, 1985;Ventura et al, 1998;Lemos et al, 2000;Voss et al, 2001;Solari, 2004;Lew et al, 2005;Solari, 2007;Vilela et al, 2010;Pavan et al, 2012;Solari et al, 2012;Voss et al, 2012;Pavan, 2015). The most inclusive morphology-based revisionary study (Gomes, 1991) was exclusively based on Brazilian specimens and remains unpublished.…”

Supplemental Material for 'A revision of the didelphid marsupial genus Marmosops. Part 1, Species of the subgenus Sciophanes. (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 402)'

“…The current classification formally recognizes 17 valid species of Marmosops, a total that includes the 15 species recognized by Gardner and Creighton (2008) and two others subsequently described as new (Voss et al, 2013;García et al, 2014). Among other didelphid genera, only Monodelphis (with 22 currently recognized species; Pavan et al, 2014;Pavan, 2015) and Marmosa (with 19 species; Voss et al, 2014) are comparably diverse.…”