title: Talpid Mole Phylogeny Unites Shrew Moles and Illuminates Overlooked Cryptic Species Diversity.
abstract: The mammalian family Talpidae (moles, shrew moles, desmans) is characterized by diverse ecomorphologies associated with terrestrial, semi-aquatic, semi-fossorial, fossorial, and aquatic-fossorial lifestyles. Prominent specializations involved with these different lifestyles, and the transitions between them, pose outstanding questions regarding the evolutionary history within the family, not only for living but also for fossil taxa. Here, we investigate the phylogenetic relationships, divergence times, and biogeographic history of the family using 19 nuclear and 2 mitochondrial genes (∼16 kb) from ∼60% of described species representing all 17 genera. Our phylogenetic analyses help settle classical questions in the evolution of moles, identify an ancient (mid-Miocene) split within the monotypic genus Scaptonyx, and indicate that talpid species richness may be nearly 30% higher than previously recognized. Our results also uniformly support the monophyly of long-tailed moles with the two shrew mole tribes and confirm that the Gansu mole is the sole living Asian member of an otherwise North American radiation. Finally, we provide evidence that aquatic specializations within the tribes Condylurini and Desmanini evolved along different morphological trajectories, though we were unable to statistically reject monophyly of the strictly fossorial tribes Talpini and Scalopini.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.|Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MN , Canada.
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: He
authors: Department of Bio-resources, Division of Biotechnology, Frontier Science Research Center, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan.
authors: Akio
authors: A
authors: Shinohara
authors: National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
authors: Kristofer M
authors: KM
authors: Helgen
authors: Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA.
authors: Mark S
authors: MS
authors: Springer
authors: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China jiangxl@mail.kiz.ac.cn kevin.campbell@umanitoba.ca.
authors: Xue-Long
authors: XL
authors: Jiang
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MN , Canada jiangxl@mail.kiz.ac.cn kevin.campbell@umanitoba.ca.
authors: Kevin L
authors: KL
authors: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008971:Moles / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D012788:Shrews / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: Talpidae; aquatic; cryptic species; fossorial; tree of life