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Issue: Vol. 5116 No. 3: 21 Mar. 2022
Type: Article
Published: 2022-03-21
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5116.3.1
Page range: 301-333
Abstract views: 1493
PDF downloaded: 41

A new species of Tamiops (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from Sichuan, China

Sichuan Academy of Forestry, No.18, Xinghui Xilu Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610081, China.
Sichuan Academy of Forestry, No.18, Xinghui Xilu Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610081, China.
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Sichuan Academy of Forestry, No.18, Xinghui Xilu Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610081, China.
Sichuan Academy of Forestry, No.18, Xinghui Xilu Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610081, China.
College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 1819 Chenglong Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610101, China.
Sichuan Academy of Forestry, No.18, Xinghui Xilu Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610081, China.
College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 1819 Chenglong Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610101, China.
College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 1819 Chenglong Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610101, China.
College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 1819 Chenglong Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610101, China.
Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 32 Jiaochang Donglu, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
Mammalia Asiatic striped squirrels baculum molecular phylogeny morphology morphometrics new species Sichuan systematics Tamiops taxonomy

Abstract

During a small mammal survey in Wanglang National Natural Reserve, Sichuan, China in August–October 2018, we collected four specimens of an Asiatic striped squirrel (genus Tamiops) that could not be assigned morphologically to any described species. Phylogenetic analyses of CYTB and nuDNA sequences strongly supported them in the genus Tamiops. The p-distances of CYTB between these individuals and other species of Tamiops ranged from 17.4 to 19.1%. Morphologically, they differed from their congeners, including T. maritimus, T. mcclellandii, T. rodolphii, and T. swinhoei by pelage, skull, and baculum characteristics. Based on the results of morphological comparisons and molecular analyses, we describe the four specimens as the new species Tamiops minshanica sp. nov.

 

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