An underground burst of diversity - a new look at the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genusTalpaLinnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Talpidae) as revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial genes

Abstract

Using both nuclear and mitochondrial sequences, we demonstrate high genetic differentiation in the genus Talpa and confirm the existence of cryptic species in the Caucasus and Anatolia, namely, T. talyschensis Vereschagin, 1945, T. ognevi Stroganov, 1948, and Talpa ex gr. levantis. Our data support four clades in the genus Talpa that showed strong geographical associations. The 'europaea' group includes six species from the western portion of the genus' range (T. europaea, T. occidentalis, T. romana, T. caeca, T. stankovici, and T. levantis s.l.); another three groups are distributed further east: the 'caucasica' group (Caucasus), the 'davidiana' group (eastern Anatolia and Elburz) and T. altaica (Siberia). The phylogenetic position of T. davidiana was highlighted for the first time. The order of basal branching remains controversial, which can be attributed to rapid diversification events. The molecular time estimates based on nuclear concatenation estimated the basal divergence of the crown Talpa during the latest Miocene. A putative scenario of Talpa radiation and issues of species delimitation are discussed.

Genetic and morphologic diversity of the moles (Talpomorpha, Talpidae,Mogera) from the continental Far East

“…According to the Genetic Species Concept, the species threshold is determined based on the level of differentiation between known genetically isolated lineages (Baker & Bradley, ; Bradley & Baker, ). The essential mitochondrial genetic distance between M. wogura and M. robusta (~6%) corresponds to those between pairs of the sister species in other groups of the strictly fossorial moles such as Talpa or Euroscaptor (Bannikova et al., ; Nicolas, Martínez‐Vargas, & Hugot, ; Tsuchiya et al., ; Zemlemerova, Bannikova, Lebedev, Rozhnov, & Abramov, ). The phylogeographic break might have occurred when the Korea Strait could block gene exchange between these two lineages.…”

Mammal endemism In Italy: A review

“…The taxonomic status of these lineages deserves additional studies considering the observed chromosomal difference relative to the general conservation of karyotype in the genus (Gornung et al 2008). The time of divergence between the two T. caeca lineages (about 1 MYA) is close to the maximum limit of intraspecific divergence in the genus Talpa (Bannikova et al 2015).…”

“…Recent genetic molecular studies found that T. caeca has segregated into an Italian and a Balkan lineage (Bannikova et al 2015). The taxonomic status of these lineages deserves additional studies considering the observed chromosomal difference relative to the general conservation of karyotype in the genus (Gornung et al 2008).…”

Genetic analysis of Turkish martens: Do two species of the genus Martes occur in Anatolia?

“…Although studies have considered the potential role of Anatolia as a glacial refugium for some species (Bilgin, ; Hewitt, ), phylogeographical analyses related to the potential refugia in the Anatolian region are scarce. Molecular studies on the mammal species distributed in Turkey, such as rodents, carnivores and some insectivores, have suggested that these populations harbour unique genetic lineages, either in terms of haplotypes or evolutionarily significant units (Aksöyek, İbiş, Özcan, Moradi, & Tez, ; Bannikova et al., ; Dubey, Diker, Kurtonur, & Vogel, ; Dubey et al., ; Gündüz, Rambau, Tez, & Searle, ; Gündüz et al., , ; İbiş, Aksöyek, Özcan, & Tez, ; İbiş, Tez, & Özcan, ; İbiş et al., ; Neumann et al., ).…”