New records of the William’s Jerboa, Paralactaga cf. williamsi (Thomas, 1897) (Rodentia: Dipodidae) from northeastern Iran with notes on its ecology

Abstract

Paralactaga williamsi, a five-toed jerboa, is known to occur in Anatolian Turkey, northern Lebanon, Armenia, Azerbaijan and western Iran. Here, we report the first record of this species in Kopet-Dag Mountains, northeastern Iran. Species identification was based on external morphology, skull and molar teeth morphology and morphometrics studies, as well as molecular an alyses. Brief notes on the ecology of the species are also provided. This new record expands the distribution of P. williamsi in Iran about 850 km eastward, however further sampling will be needed for a better judgment on the taxonomic status of this species in eastern Iran and to determine the patterns of its distribution. Since the specimen did not group with other P. williamsi in the cytochrome b analysis, we provisionally classify the specimens as P. cf. williamsi.

Whole mitochondrial genome sequence and phylogenetic relationships of Williams’s jerboa (Scarturus williamsi) from Turkey

“…Olgun Karacan et al (2019 , ) recorded the CYTB sequences (888 bp) of S. williamsi samples in the NCBI database. Besides these studies, two other molecular-based studies ( Dianat et al, 2013 ; Hamidi, Darvish & Matin, 2016 ) used S. williamsi samples from Iran. In these studies, Dianat et al (2013) used CYTB (894 bp) and COX1 (632 bp) sequences of nine samples from different regions of Iran and suggested that S. williamsi is a species complex depending on the genetic variability within the genus.…”

“…In these studies, Dianat et al (2013) used CYTB (894 bp) and COX1 (632 bp) sequences of nine samples from different regions of Iran and suggested that S. williamsi is a species complex depending on the genetic variability within the genus. Hamidi, Darvish & Matin (2016) reported the first distributional record of S. williamsi ( S. cf. williamsi ) from northeastern Iran, in the Kopet-Dag Mountains based on the CYTB (695 bp) sequence obtained from a single sample.…”

“…Molecular-based studies on S. williamsi samples are scarce and only partial mitochondrial sequences of this species are available in the NCBI database (Dianat et al, 2013;Kryštufek et al, 2013;Hamidi, Darvish & Matin, 2016;Olgun Karacan et al, 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MG255335.1). Kryštufek et al (2013) established the mitochondrial CYTB (1,104 bp) and 16S rRNA (317 bp) sequences of three Williams's jerboas from Turkey and found that their samples were grouped with samples of S. williamsi from north western Iran and samples of S. euphraticus from Lebanon.…”

“…According to the latest taxonomic revision ( Michaux & Shenbrot, 2017 ), this genus is represented by seven species ( S. williamsi, S. aulacotis , S. euphraticus , S. hotsoni , S. elater , S. vinogradovi and S. tetradactylus ). However, the taxonomy of the genus Scarturus and its number of species are still controversial ( Lebedev et al, 2013 ; Hamidi, Darvish & Matin, 2016 ; Michaux & Shenbrot, 2017 ; Bannikova et al, 2019 ). Molecular data are available for only a few areas and species within the genus ( Dianat et al, 2010 , 2013 ; Kryštufek et al, 2013 ; Lebedev et al, 2013 ; Zhang et al, 2013 ; Moshtaghi et al, 2016 ; Bannikova et al, 2019 ).…”

A new and highly divergent mitochondrial lineage in the Small Five-toed Jerboa, Allactaga elater, from Iran (Mammalia: Rodentia)

“…The number of species of Allactaga is controversial and the genus has been the subject of many systematic studies in recent decades (e.g. Tarahomi et al 2010;Zhang et al 2013;Lebedev et al 2013;Kryštufek et al, 2013) with some authors classifying these species as belonging to genus Paralactaga, Young, 1927(Lebedev et al, 2013Hamidi et al, 2016). However, with the exception of a few studies on the taxonomy of rodent species (e.g.…”