Title
Alpha taxonomy of Dromiciops (Microbiotheriidae) with the description of 2 new species of monito del monte
Date Issued
25 July 2016
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
D'Elía G.
D'Anatro A.
Universidad Austral de Chile
Publisher(s)
Allen Press Inc.
Abstract
A previous study showed that Dromiciops gliroides has deep phylogeographic structure, with 3 allopatric and highly differentiated groups. Here, we constructed on that study by assessing the morphologic variation of D. gliroides. Our results show that along its distribution Dromiciops is morphologically highly variable and that the geographic pattern of morphologic variation matches the phylogeographic pattern. Taken together, morphological and molecular data indicate the existence of 2 unrecognized and unnamed species of monito del monte, which are here named and described. Cranial and dental features can easily distinguish species of Dromiciops. One of the new species is endemic of Chile, and the other new species occurs in Argentina and Chile. D. gliroides s.s. is restricted to the southern part of the genus distribution including Chiloé Island. We comment on the conservation significance of our findings and on the need of continuing with field- and collection-based research in order to characterize the richness of the Chilean mammal assemblage.
Start page
1136
End page
1152
Volume
97
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Crías y mascotas Ciencia veterinaria
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84982933541
Source
Journal of Mammalogy
ISSN of the container
00222372
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus