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Issue: Vol. 5566 No. 3: 9 Jan. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-01-09
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5566.3.5
Page range: 535-564
Abstract views: 166
PDF downloaded: 6

Hidden diversity in an ecologically specialized genus of Australian marsupials, the feather-tailed gliders, Acrobates (Diprotodontia, Acrobatidae)

Australian National Wildlife Collection; CSIRO National Research Collections Australia; GPO Box 1700; Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA; The University of Adelaide; Adelaide SA 5005 Australia; South Australian Museum; North Terrace; Adelaide SA 5000 Australia.
Division of Ecology and Evolution; Research School of Biology; The Australian National University; Canberra ACT 2600 Australia; Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies; University of Zurich; Winterthurstrasse 190; 8057; Zurich; Switzerland
The Natural History Museum; Mammal Group; Cromwell Road; London SW7 5BD UK
The Australian Museum; Sydney NSW 2010 Australia
South Australian Museum; North Terrace; Adelaide SA 5000 Australia
Coleoptera marsupial taxonomy Acrobates hidden species molecular genetics

Abstract

The marsupial Family Acrobatidae includes the smallest gliding marsupial species in the monotypic Acrobates, found only in eastern Australia, and an equally small non-gliding species in another monotypic genus Distoechurus, found only in New Guinea. We applied molecular genetic analysis to Acrobates to assess the systematic significance of variation in superficial external characters of the tail and hindfoot (pes). Deep divergence in mitochondrial and nuclear genes demonstrated the broad sympatry of two species consistent with prior morphological diagnoses. Morphological assessment of museum vouchers showed that their distributions overlap extensively in New South Wales and Victoria and include locations where a range of biological research was conducted on the assumption of the presence of a single species. Many of these studies cannot be reassessed because neither vouchers nor tissue suitable for molecular genetic identification were collected. Intriguingly, acrobatids are the only marsupial group with internal ear discs, and the two species of Acrobates show demonstrable differences in the morphology of this structure, the biological significance of which needs to be established. Both species of Acrobates occur widely in the eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia, which appear to be subject to a growing threat from bushfires likely aggravated by anthropogenic climate change.

 

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