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Discovery of a new mammal species (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) from Narcondam volcanic island, India - PubMed

️Fri Jan 01 2021

Discovery of a new mammal species (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) from Narcondam volcanic island, India

Manokaran Kamalakannan et al. Sci Rep. 2021.

Abstract

We discovered a new Crocidura species of shrew (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) from Narcondam Island, India by using both morphological and molecular approaches. The new species, Crocidura narcondamica sp. nov. is of medium size (head and body lengths) and has a distinct external morphology (darker grey dense fur with a thick, darker tail) and craniodental characters (braincase is rounded and elevated with weak lambdoidal ridges) in comparison to other close congeners. This is the first discovery of a shrew from this volcanic island and increases the total number of Crocidura species catalogued in the Indian checklist of mammals to 12. The newly discovered species shows substantial genetic distances (12.02% to 16.61%) to other Crocidura species known from the Indian mainland, the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago, Myanmar, and from Sumatra. Both Maximum-Likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic inferences, based on mitochondrial (cytochrome b) gene sequences showed distinct clustering of all included soricid species and exhibit congruence with the previous evolutionary hypothesis on this mammalian group. The present phylogenetic analyses also furnished the evolutionary placement of the newly discovered species within the genus Crocidura.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Figure 1**
*Crocidura narcondamica* sp. nov. (holotype ZSI-29313, female). (a) Dorso-lateral view of female (adult alive). Views of the cranium (b) dorsal, (c) ventral, and (d) lateral. Views of the mandible (e) lateral and (f) occlusal (BC braincase, I1 first incisor/first unicuspid). The photographs were captured by the first (b–f) and fourth (a) authors using a Nikon D7000 camera and edited manually in Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0.

**Figure 2**
Map showing the Narcondam Island (marked by a red colour box) in the Andaman group of Island, India (marked by a blue colour box) along with the habitat where the new species was encountered. Map prepared using QGIS 2.6.1 (
http://www.qgis.org
) and edited manually in Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0. The habitat photographs were captured by the fourth author using a Nikon D7000 camera and edited manually in Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0.

**Figure 3**
Cranium and mandible of (I) *C. narcondamica* sp. nov. (holotype, ZSI-28000) (II) *C. attenuata* (ZSI-16129) and (III) *C. jenkinsi* (ZSI-19860). From top to bottom, (a) dorsal, (b) ventral, (c) lateral views of the cranium, and (d) lateral and (e) occlusal views of the mandible. Distinct morphological features are labelled as BC brain case, LR lambdoidal ridge, FO foramen ovale, and I1 first incisor/first unicuspid. The photographs were captured by the first author using a Nikon D7000 camera and edited manually in Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0.

**Figure 4**
The Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial Cytb gene depicted a distinct clustering of *C. narcondamica* sp. nov. in comparison with other *Crocidura* species distributed in the AN Archipelago, the mainland of India, Myanmar, and in Sumatra. The posterior probability supports are noted with each node. The GenBank accession numbers and species name are marked as per clade pattern. The distinct clade of the new species is marked by a red colour box. The figure was prepared in web-based iTOL tool (
https://itol.embl.de/
) and edited manually in Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0.

Cited by

Complete mitochondrial genome of critically endangered Crocidura nicobarica (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) from the Great Nicobar Island, India.
Kundu S, Kamalakannan M, Tyagi K, Kumar V. Kundu S, et al. Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2021 Nov 18;6(12):3418-3422. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2021.1999188. eCollection 2021. Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2021. PMID: 34869866 Free PMC article.
Complete mitogenome of the endangered and endemic Nicobar treeshrew (Tupaia nicobarica) and comparison with other Scandentians.
Kundu S, Pakrashi A, Kamalakannan M, Singha D, Tyagi K, Banerjee D, Venkatraman C, Kumar V. Kundu S, et al. Sci Rep. 2022 Jan 18;12(1):877. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-04907-7. Sci Rep. 2022. PMID: 35042947 Free PMC article.
Morphology and Mitochondrial Lineage Investigations Corroborate the Systematic Status and Pliocene Colonization of Suncus niger (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla) in the Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot of India.
Kundu S, Kamalakannan M, Kim AR, Hegde VD, Banerjee D, Jung WK, Kim YM, Kim HW. Kundu S, et al. Genes (Basel). 2023 Jul 22;14(7):1493. doi: 10.3390/genes14071493. Genes (Basel). 2023. PMID: 37510398 Free PMC article.
A Cybertaxonomic Revision of the "Crocidura pergrisea" Species Complex with a Special Focus on Endemic Rocky Shrews: Crocidura armenica and Crocidura arispa (Soricidae).
Voyta LL, Petrova TV, Panitsina VA, Bodrov SY, Winkler V, Kryuchkova LY, Abramson NI. Voyta LL, et al. Biology (Basel). 2024 Jun 18;13(6):448. doi: 10.3390/biology13060448. Biology (Basel). 2024. PMID: 38927328 Free PMC article.

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Discovery of a new mammal species (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) from Narcondam volcanic island, India - PubMed