Morphological evolution and phylogenetic relationships of the European ground voles (Arvicolidae, Rodentia)

Abstract

Brunet‐Lecomte, P. & Chaline, J. 1991 01 15: Morphological evolution and phylogcnctic relationships of the European ground voles (Arvicolidae. Rodentia). Lethaia. Vol. 24. pp. 45–53. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164. A new morphological study of the first lower molar M1 of European Quaternary ground voles (Arvicolidac. Rodcntia. Microtus (Terricola)) by means of multivariate analysis renews the systematics. phylogenetic relationships and their evolutionary group history. An Allophaiomyan origin of ground voles has been confirmed and the evolution of Mediterranean and middle Europcan groups has now been clarified. Primitive species of middle European groups display plesiomorphics. except for M. (T.) arvalidens, which shows certain apomorphies of the present species. The occurrence of M. (T.) multiplex in France at the end of the middle Pleistocene before the appearance of M. (T.) suhterraneus completely reverses previous ideas which considered that M. (T.) multiplex was a sibling species derived from M. (T.) subterraneus during the Würmian glaciation. The Atlantic species M. (T.) pyrenaicus is probably derived from the middle Pleistocene species M. (T.) mariaclaudiue whose exact origin is unknown. M. (T.) sauii, M. (T.) tarentina. M. (T.) melirensis and M. (T.) henseli belong to the same geographic group. Perhaps M. (T.) savii derived from M. (T.) tarentina or shares the same ancestor with M. (T.) tarentina. M. (T.) duodecimcostarus probably indirectly derived from an Iberian specics of Allophuiomys such as A. chalinei, while M. (T.) lusitanicus was separated from M. (T.) duodecimcostutus about 60,000 years ago. A sketch of the stratigraphical records and geographical distribution of the Terricola species in Western Europe showing their phylogenetic relationships and migrations during the middle and upper Pleistocene is included. Morphometry, variance analysis, phylogeneric relationships. Mammalia. Rodentia. Arvicolidae. Microtus, Terricola.

Did the Quaternary climatic fluctuations really influence the tempo and mode of diversification in European rodents?

“…One of the most studied radiations from systematic, palaeontological, odontometric, cytogenetic, ethological, morphometric or genetic standpoints (e.g. Meylan 1972;Storch and Winking 1977;Brunet-Lecomte 1988, 1989; Chaline et al , 1999Brunet-Lecomte and Chaline 1990, 1991, 1992Zagorodnyuk 1990;Giannoni et al 1993;Kry stufek et al 1996;Haring et al 2000;Machol an et al 2001;Mart ınkov a and Dudich 2003;Jaarola et al 2004;Mart ınkov a et al 2004Mart ınkov a et al , 2007Thanou et al 2005;Castiglia et al 2008;Tougard et al 2008a;Mitsainas et al 2009;Santos et al 2009;Bastos-Silveira et al 2012; Mart ınkov a and Moravec 2012; Rovatsos and Giagia-Athanasopoulou 2012) is the radiation of the subgenus Terricola Fatio, 1867 (European ground voles). The oldest fossil remains of Microtus (Terricola) are known from the end of Early Pleistocene (around 0.9 Myr) in Italy, and they were attributed to M. (T.) arvalidens Kretzoi, 1958 (Masini and Sala 2007).…”

Exploring phylogeography and species limits in the Altai vole (Rodentia: Cricetidae)

“…The main problem is that scientists have failed to agree on a single definition of the species. The morphological structure considered here is the first lower molar (m1), as widely used in systematics and microevolutionary studies of Microtus species (Barnosky, 1990;Brunet-Lecomte & Chaline, 1991;Spitzenberger et al, 2000;Piras et al, 2009;Quéré & Le Louarn, 2011;Renvoisé et al, 2012). In this context, an integrative approach (phylogeography, comparative morphology, and cytogenetics) is used in the present study: (1) to infer the evolutionary history and (2) to address the species limit of the Altai vole.…”

“…Because multivariate morphometric methods proved to be useful for identifying cryptic species (Adams & Funk, 1997;Bain et al, 2003;Klimov et al, 2004;Sanders, Malhotra & Thorpe, 2006), they were combined with mitochondrial (mt)DNA-based phylogeography to detect differences between closely related and morphologically similar taxa. The morphological structure considered here is the first lower molar (m1), as widely used in systematics and microevolutionary studies of Microtus species (Barnosky, 1990;Brunet-Lecomte & Chaline, 1991;Spitzenberger et al, 2000;Piras et al, 2009;Quéré & Le Louarn, 2011;Renvoisé et al, 2012). Moreover, original chromosome data for obscurus specimens from China are presented and compared with those of Russian and Turkish obscurus (Meyer et al, 1996;Golenishchev et al, 2001;Kryštufek & Vohralík, 2005;Bulatova et al, 2007Bulatova et al, , 2010b, as well as arvalis (Meyer et al, 1996).…”

p53 gene discriminates two ecologically divergent sister species of pine voles

“…Microtus lusitanicus and M. duodecimcostatus (the Lusitanian and the Mediterranean pine voles, respectively) are western European endemic sister species, with an estimated origin of o150 Kyr (Brunet- Lecomte and Chaline, 1991;Tougard et al, 2008). Both the species exhibit burrowing behaviour but differ in a set of ecological and morphological traits that together suggest that M. duodecimcostatus is more dependent from the subterranean habitat than M. lusitanicus (Mathias, 1990;Santos et al, 2009a,b;Santos et al, 2010).…”