serval:BIB_179161253C94
Genetic identity of the critically endangered Wimmer's shrew Crocidura wimmeri
10.1111/bij.12196
000328476900018
Vogel
P.
author
Vogel
V.
author
Fumagalli
L.
author
Kadjo
B.
author
Kouadio
R.Y.
author
Dubey
S.
author
article
2014
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
0024-4066
journal
111
1
224-229
Coastal primary rainforests have suffered damage in Côte d'Ivoire as a result of a lack of protection and urban pressures. Consequently, the highly endemic and critically endangered Wimmer's shrew, Crocidura wimmeri, known only from its type locality, Adiopodoumé, near Abidjan, was considered to have been extinct since 1976. Shrew species assignment is often problematic because of strong phenotypic similarities among many species. The phylogenetic position of C. wimmeri within the African Crocidura species should thus be clarified. In light of its recent rediscovery in the nearby small Banco National Park (34 km2), we investigated the genetic identity of seven specimens of C. wimmeri, based on 1020 bp of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene compared to other species sampled in the same region and published sequences from GenBank. Crocidura wimmeri formed a well-defined clade, the closest-related species being Crocidura sp., with a distance of 9.3%, a yet unknown species from Taï and Ziama forests. These results thus confirmed the validity of this species. This genetic characterization not only contributes to our knowledge of the evolution of West African shrews, but also may help in the discovery of additional populations of this critically endangered species.
Africa
conservation
Crocidurinae
cytochrome b
Ivory Coast
Soricidae
eng
60_published
true
University of Lausanne
mailto:serval_help@unil.ch
http://www.unil.ch/serval
http://serval.unil.ch/disclaimer
https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_179161253C94