Museum specimens shedding light on the evolutionary history and hidden diversity of the hedgehog family Erinaceidae

Abstract

The family of Erinaceidae comprises 26 extant species in the subfamily Erinaceinae of spiny hedgehogs and the subfamily Galericinae of silky-furred gymnures and moonrats. These animals inhabit various habitats from tropical forests to deserts in Eurasia and Africa. Previous studies hinted that species diversity was likely underestimated. Moreover, erinaceids are among the oldest known living placental mammals originating more than 60 million years ago. The rich fossil records represent both living subfamilies and an extinct subfamily Brachyericinae. Comprehensive understanding of evolutionary history and taxonomic diversity is hampered by the unavailability of samples and the incorporation of molecular and morphological data. Here, we sequenced mitochondrial genomes from museum specimens and morphological data to reconstruct the genealogical relationships of Erinaceidae. Our results finely resolved interspecific relationships of living species and unveiled underestimated species diversity not only in Hylomys as revealed in previous studies, also in Neotetracus gymnures and Atelerix, Hemiechinus, and Paraechinus hedgehogs. The two extinct subfamilies, Brachyericinae and Erinaceinae were supported as sister taxa. There is a hint of a close relationship between fossil Galerix and Southeast Asian Hylomys. These findings highlight the potentiality of museomics but also found an overestimation of divergence times using mitogenomes as revealed in previous studies.