An underground burst of diversity - a new look at the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Talpa Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Talpidae) as revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial genes

Bannikova, Anna A., Zemlemerova, Elena D., Colangelo, Paolo, Sözen, Mustafa, Sevindik, M., Kidov, Artem A., Dzuev, Ruslan I., Kryštufek, Boris, Lebedev, Vladimir S. (2015): An underground burst of diversity - a new look at the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Talpa Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Talpidae) as revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 175 (4): 930-948, DOI: 10.1111/zoj.12298, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/zoj.1229

Talpa RADIATION

SCENARIO OF Talpa RADIATION According to our data the basal part of the Talpa tree appears as a polytomy, which can be attributed to rapid diversification events. Molecular clock results suggest that the onset of this radiation dates back to the latest Miocene (Table 2) in agreement with previous mitochondrial data (Colangelo et al., 2010). The fact that three of the four basal lineages are distributed in Asia supports the hypothesis on re-colonisation of Europe from Asia advanced in the above study and indicates a key role of the Near East and Paratethys regions in the evolution of this genus. Whereas the Late Miocene Messinian climatic fluctuations could have led to a nearly complete extinction of Talpini in the western Europe (Fortelius, 2008), the mountainous areas of the Caucasus, Anatolia, and western Iran retained a sufficient level of humidity in the Late Miocene and Pliocene as follows from the available data on vegetation (Kovar-Eder, 2003; Kovar-Eder et al., 2006) and thus may have harboured isolated populations of several Talpa lineages (‘caucasica’ and ‘davidiana’ groups). One can hypothesise that the third branch (‘europaea’) also originated from this region. This proposition is consistent with the fact that the only Asian member of the clade, T. levantis, is the sister to the subclade containing all European species. Finally, the fourth major lineage (T. altaica) is a geographical outlier, being distributed in Siberia. The place of origin and range history of the Siberian lineage remains unclear. In general, the evolutionary history of the genus Talpa is characterized by several rounds of radiation and extinction. Although the genus has a long evolutionary history with the first appearance recorded in the Early Miocene of Europe (Ziegler, 1990) it is evident from the molecular phylogenetic analysis that the modern diversity was formed de novo from a single Late Miocene lineage. It should be emphasised that the genus Talpa (including the Early Miocene taxa) is expected to be paraphyletic relative to the other extant genera of Talpini (i.e., the East Asian clade, including Mogera, Euroscaptor, Parascaptor, Scaptochirus) because the oldest fossil of Talpa is dated to 20–22 Myr (Ziegler, 1990) whereas the molecular data suggest a Middle Miocene age for the most recent common ancestor of the crown Talpini (He et al., 2014; our data). The fact that both Early–Middle Miocene and extant species are attributed to the same genus is explained by morphological conservatism owing to the uniformity of fossorial adaptations (Barrow & Macleod, 2008). At the other extreme, slow morphological evolution in Talpa manifests as high cryptic diversity at the level of closely related species. Further studies based on a more extensive sampling of genes and taxa should elucidate the true magnitude of cryptic speciation in fossorial moles and develop a more detailed evolutionary scenario for Talpa.Published as part of Bannikova, Anna A., Zemlemerova, Elena D., Colangelo, Paolo, Sözen, Mustafa, Sevindik, M., Kidov, Artem A., Dzuev, Ruslan I., Kryštufek, Boris & Lebedev, Vladimir S., 2015, An underground burst of diversity - a new look at the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Talpa Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Talpidae) as revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial genes, pp. 930-948 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 175 (4) on pages 944-945, DOI: 10.1111/zoj.12298, http://zenodo.org/record/533992

Evolutionary History of the Mole

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The naked truth : a comprehensive clarification and classification of current ‘myths’ in naked mole-rat biology

The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) has fascinated zoologists for at least half a century. It has also generated considerable biomedical interest not only because of its extraordinary longevity, but also because of unusual protective features (e.g. its tolerance of variable oxygen availability), which may be pertinent to several human disease states, including ischemia/reperfusion injury and neurodegeneration. A recent article entitled ‘Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked molerat biology’ described 28 ‘myths’ which, those authors claimed, are a ‘perpetuation of beautiful, but falsified, hypotheses’ and impede our understanding of this enigmatic mammal. Here, we re-examine each of these ‘myths’ based on evidence published in the scientific literature. Following Braude et al., we argue that these ‘myths’ fall into four main categories: (i) ‘myths’ that would be better described as oversimplifications, some of which persist solely in the popular press; (ii) ‘myths’ that are based on incomplete understanding, where more evidence is clearly needed; (iii) ‘myths’ where the accumulation of evidence over the years has led to a revision in interpretation, but where there is no significant disagreement among scientists currently working in the field; (iv) ‘myths’ where there is a genuine difference in opinion among active researchers, based on alternative interpretations of the available evidence. The term ‘myth’ is particularly inappropriate when applied to competing, evidence-based hypotheses, which form part of the normal evolution of scientific knowledge. Here, we provide a comprehensive critical review of naked mole-rat biology and attempt to clarify some of these misconceptions.Calico Life Sciences, LLC and Dunhill Medical Trust.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1469185xMammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

The naked truth: a comprehensive clarification and classification of current 'myths' in naked mole-rat biology

The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) has fascinated zoologists for at least half a century. It has also generated considerable biomedical interest not only because of its extraordinary longevity, but also because of unusual protective features (e.g. its tolerance of variable oxygen availability), which may be pertinent to several human disease states, including ischemia/reperfusion injury and neurodegeneration. A recent article entitled 'Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology' described 28 'myths' which, those authors claimed, are a 'perpetuation of beautiful, but falsified, hypotheses' and impede our understanding of this enigmatic mammal. Here, we re-examine each of these 'myths' based on evidence published in the scientific literature. Following Braude et al., we argue that these 'myths' fall into four main categories: (i) 'myths' that would be better described as oversimplifications, some of which persist solely in the popular press; (ii) 'myths' that are based on incomplete understanding, where more evidence is clearly needed; (iii) 'myths' where the accumulation of evidence over the years has led to a revision in interpretation, but where there is no significant disagreement among scientists currently working in the field; (iv) 'myths' where there is a genuine difference in opinion among active researchers, based on alternative interpretations of the available evidence. The term 'myth' is particularly inappropriate when applied to competing, evidence-based hypotheses, which form part of the normal evolution of scientific knowledge. Here, we provide a comprehensive critical review of naked mole-rat biology and attempt to clarify some of these misconceptions