Genetic identity of the critically endangered Wimmer's shrewCrocidura wimmeri

Abstract

Coastal primary rainforests have suffered damage in Côte d'Ivoire as a result of a lack of protection and urban pressures. Consequently, the highly endemic and critically endangered Wimmer's shrew, Crocidura wimmeri, known only from its type locality, Adiopodoumé, near Abidjan, was considered to have been extinct since 1976. Shrew species assignment is often problematic because of strong phenotypic similarities among many species. The phylogenetic position of C. wimmeri within the African Crocidura species should thus be clarified. In light of its recent rediscovery in the nearby small Banco National Park (34 km 2 ), we investigated the genetic identity of seven specimens of C. wimmeri, based on 1020 bp of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene compared to other species sampled in the same region and published sequences from GenBank. Crocidura wimmeri formed a well-defined clade, the closest-related species being Crocidura sp., with a distance of 9.3%, a yet unknown species from Taï and Ziama forests. These results thus confirmed the validity of this species. This genetic characterization not only contributes to our knowledge of the evolution of West African shrews, but also may help in the discovery of additional populations of this critically endangered species.

Incongruences between morphology and molecular phylogeny provide an insight into the diversification of the Crocidura poensis species complex

“…C. fingui , endemic to Príncipe Island 14 , was excluded from our analyses as no intact skulls could be retrieved. Due to several very small sample sizes, three additional species could not be included in the analyses taking into account taxonomy: the East African species C. turba and C. similiturba , and the critically endangered C. wimmeri endemic to Ivory Coast 47 . Specimens originally described as C. grandiceps were divided into two lineages, C. grandiceps and a monophyletic group of smaller individuals temporarily named C. cf.…”

Shrews (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla) from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa), with a field identification key to species

“…2) using a Mitutoyo caliper (Mitutoyo, Kawasaki, Japan) with a precision of 0.01 mm. All specimens are housed in the mammal collections of the MNHN under catalogue numbers MNHN-ZM-2012-1051to 2012-1205, 2014-899 to 2014 and at the DM under the numbers 13176-13204 (Appendices 1; 2; 3). Guinean species identification was based on an integrative taxonomic approach using morphological and molecular data (Jacquet et al 2012).…”

Molecular taxonomy of Crocidura species (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae) in a key biogeographical region for African shrews, Nigeria

“…These two specimens are identified as "Crocidura theresae" in GenBank and original publications [36,37], but they were later called Crocidura cf. foxi in subsequent studies [15,28]. Crocidura foxi and C. theresae both belong to the C. poensis complex which was recently reviewed by Nicolas et al [38].…”

“…This lack of knowledge is a major problem for attempts to delineate appropriate units for biodiversity conservation and for investigations into the distribution ranges of species that may be carriers of zoonotic diseases. Nonetheless, contemporary studies using genetic sequences are beginning to contribute new insight [5,6,14,15,16].…”