Abstract
The missing-toothed pygmy weasel, Mustela aistoodonnivalis Wu and Kao, 1991, was originally described from Zhouzhi and Zhashui in the Qingling Mountains in Shaanxi province, China. Subsequently it was considered a subspecies of M. nivalis. During a faunal survey of northwest Sichuan, some specimens of M. aistoodonnivalis were collected. Molecular phylogenetic studies showed that M. aistoodonnivalis formed a distinct clade that was sister to M. eriminea based on one mitochondrial gene and six nuclear genes. Morphologically, there was an obvious difference between M. aistoodonnivalis and M. nivalis, especially the lack of the second lower molar. Geometric morphology studies and species delimitation analysis revealed the valid species status of M. aistoodonnivalis . In summary, we confirm that M. aistoodonnivalis is an independent species rather than a subspecies of M. nivalis , and that it is more closely related to Mustela eriminea .
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ARPHA Preprints
https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e72208 (27 Jul 2021)
https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e72208 (27 Jul 2021)
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ARPHA Preprints
doi:
10.3897/arphapreprints.e72208
First posted
27 Jul 2021
Authors
College of Life Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
Sihcuan Academy of Forestry, Chengdu, China
Sihcuan Academy of Forestry, Chengdu, China
College of Life Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
College of Life Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
Chen Shunde
- Corresponding author
Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
Bisong Yue
- Corresponding author
College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Liu Shaoying
- Corresponding author
Sichuan Academy of Forestry, Chengdu, China
Conflict of interest
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Supporting agencies
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31970399, 31670388)
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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