Publication details
Fylogeneze bělozubek (Crocidurinae): deset rodů, stovky druhů a četné systematické nejasnosti
| Title in English | Phylogeny of white-toothed shrews (Crocidurinae): ten genera, hundreds of species, and numerous systematic uncertainties |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | White-toothed shrews of the subfamily Crocidurinae (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae) are small terrestrial mammals inhabiting most of Europe, Asia, and Africa. In its current conception, this subfamily includes a total of 10 genera: Crocidura, Diplomesodon, Feroculus, Palawanosorex, Paracrocidura, Ruwenzorisorex, Scutisorex, Solisorex, Suncus, and Sylvisorex. With the exception of the genus Palawanosorex, all others were established before the molecular era and therefore exclusively on the basis of morphological data. High species diversity and the absence of distinctive external diagnostic features for species identification have led to the extensive use of genetic sequences, which have become a key tool for reconstructing phylogenetic relationships between species. But what if it turns out that the genera described on the basis of morphology are not monophyletic? The first molecular phylogenetic studies of white-toothed shrews already pointed out that morphologically defined genera exhibit paraphyletic to polyphyletic relationships. However, these studies were characterized by a limited number of both genetic markers and species studied. For this reason, we reconstructed the phylogeny of all ten white-toothed shrew genera based on all published and unpublished mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences. We then obtained genomic data (UCE) for 102 individuals representing nine genera and covering a large part of the diversity revealed by cytochrome b. Our results confirm the existing taxonomic problems: the nested position of Paracrocidura and Diplomesodon within Crocidura, the unrelatedness of Asian and African species of the genus Suncus, with the African ones being variously mixed with species of the genus Sylvisorex. Ruwenzorisorex and Scutisorex are also intercalated between the lines of the genus Sylvisorex. In the end, only the genera Palawanosorex and Solisorex remained monophyletic. Our phylogenomic analyses thus clarify relationships that were previously only suspected on the basis of less robust mitochondrial markers and underscore the need for a taxonomic revision of the entire subfamily of white-toothed shrews by integrating morphological and genetic data. Funded by Czech Science Foundation no. GA23-06116S. |