Molecular data from the holotype of the enigmatic Bornean Black Shrew, Suncus ater Medway, 1965 (Soricidae, Crocidurinae), place it in the genus Palawanosorex

Although Borneo has received more attention from biologists than most other islands in the Malay Archipelago, many questions regarding the systematic relationships of Bornean mammals remain. Using next-generation sequencing technology, we obtained mitochondrial DNA sequences from the holotype of Suncus ater, the only known specimen of this shrew. Several shrews collected recently in Sarawak are closely aligned, both morphologically and mitochondrially, with the holotype of S. ater. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial sequences indicate that the S. ater holotype and new Sarawak specimens do not belong to the genus Suncus, but instead are most closely related to Palawanosorex muscorum. Until now Palawanosorex has been known only from the neighboring Philippine island of Palawan. Additional sequences from nuclear ultra-conserved elements from the new Sarawak specimens strongly support a sister relationship to P. muscorum. We therefore transfer ater to Palawanosorex. The new specimens demonstrate that P. ater is more widespread in northern Borneo than previously recorded. Continued sampling of Bornean mammal diversity and reexamination of type material are critical in understanding the evolutionary history of the biologically rich Malay Archipelago

Student Attitudes Contribute to the Effectiveness of a Genomics CURE

The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP) engages students in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). To better understand the student attributes that support success in this CURE, we asked students about their attitudes using previously published scales that measure epistemic beliefs about work and science, interest in science, and grit. We found, in general, that the attitudes students bring with them into the classroom contribute to two outcome measures, namely, learning as assessed by a pre- and postquiz and perceived self-reported benefits. While the GEP CURE produces positive outcomes overall, the students with more positive attitudes toward science, particularly with respect to epistemic beliefs, showed greater gains. The findings indicate the importance of a student\u27s epistemic beliefs to achieving positive learning outcomes

Expert range maps of global mammal distributions harmonised to three taxonomic authorities

AimComprehensive, global information on species' occurrences is an essential biodiversity variable and central to a range of applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography and conservation. Expert range maps often represent a species' only available distributional information and play an increasing role in conservation assessments and macroecology. We provide global range maps for the native ranges of all extant mammal species harmonised to the taxonomy of the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD) mobilised from two sources, the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW) and the Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World (CMW).LocationGlobal.TaxonAll extant mammal species.MethodsRange maps were digitally interpreted, georeferenced, error-checked and subsequently taxonomically aligned between the HMW (6253 species), the CMW (6431 species) and the MDD taxonomies (6362 species).ResultsRange maps can be evaluated and visualised in an online map browser at Map of Life (mol.org) and accessed for individual or batch download for non-commercial use.Main conclusionExpert maps of species' global distributions are limited in their spatial detail and temporal specificity, but form a useful basis for broad-scale characterizations and model-based integration with other data. We provide georeferenced range maps for the native ranges of all extant mammal species as shapefiles, with species-level metadata and source information packaged together in geodatabase format. Across the three taxonomic sources our maps entail, there are 1784 taxonomic name differences compared to the maps currently available on the IUCN Red List website. The expert maps provided here are harmonised to the MDD taxonomic authority and linked to a community of online tools that will enable transparent future updates and version control

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Supplemental Material for 'Fourteen new, endemic species of shrew (genus Crocidura) from Sulawesi reveal a spectacular island radiation. (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 454)'

Supplemental Material for 'Fourteen new, endemic species of shrew (genus Crocidura) from Sulawesi reveal a spectacular island radiation. (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 454)

Isolation by marine barriers and climate explain areas of endemism in an island rodent

Aim: The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to thousands of endemic terrestrial animal species. Phylogeographical studies of some of these taxa revealed concordant distribution patterns (areas of endemism; AoEs), suggestive of a shared evolutionary or ecological mechanism driving divergence among various terrestrial taxa. Generally, AoEs have been attributed to Pleistocene marine incursions, geological fault zones and Sulawesi\u27s history as an archipelago. We test, for the first time, the hypothesis that population divergences are associated with unsuitable climate spaces at the boundaries between these areas. Location: Sulawesi, Indonesia. Taxon: Maxomys musschenbroekii, a common murid rodent endemic to Sulawesi. Methods: We sequenced a mitochondrial gene, four nuclear protein-coding genes and hundreds of ultraconserved elements from individuals sampled across the island, which we used to build intraspecific phylogenies and identify population structure. To test climate-related hypotheses, we used multiple regression to assess the extent to which genetic distances, over-land geographical distances, environmental distances (derived from ecological niche model resistance surfaces) and areas of endemism are correlated. Results: In all three genetic datasets, we inferred phylogeographical structure that is geographically concordant with previously defined AoEs. Ecological niche models showed a similar geography of suitability across the island since the Last Glacial Maximum, with varying levels of unsuitable climate space between AoEs. Genetic distances were more strongly correlated with environmental distances than geographical distances and interspecific divergences arose just in the past 1.5 Myr. Main Conclusions: Population divergences within M. musschenbroekii are consistent with AoE definitions from other taxa. Stable areas of unsuitable habitat near AoE boundaries probably supplemented marine incursions in generating population structure within M. musschenbroekii and other co-distributed species