Heritage Cases

Loan of rodent skulls and mandibles as requested by the borrower for use in a research project updating and revising the taxonomy of the genera and species involved. Gauteng, This was the application sent by the borrower: The material requested will be used in two projects, namely systematic revision of genus Grammomys and description of a putative new species of Gerbillurus. The Grammomys project follows our previous study (Bryja et al. 2017), who presented for the first time a comprehensive phylogeny of this genus and provided provisional names for its major clades. Now the full systematic revision of the genus is being prepared at our institute in collaboration with researchers from several respectable institutions (MNHN Paris, Field Museum Chicago etc.) As a part of this effort a few hundreds of skulls were photographed and their shape captured by anatomical landmarks. However, some putative species are poorly represented in museum collections and we still lack a good sample of the southernmost species, G. dolichurus. Furthermore, G. dolichurus meets another species further north and better sample from the area is necessary to establish whether name G. cometes is applicable to it as it appears from our initial analyses. Ditsong Museum has an incomparable large series of Grammomys specimens from the region of interest and its loan could improve quality of the revision greatly. The Gerbillurus project is smaller in scope and stems from my observation made when studying skull form variation in genera Gerbilliscus and Gerbillurus, that are in fact congeneric (Chevret & Dobigny 2005). There is a small series of specimens from Gauteng in the possession of Ditsong Museum, which are not easily classified to any species and in fact they appear morphologically unique even in the context of the whole genus (Gerbilliscus in a broad sense). It seems, therefore, they are representatives of an undescribed species. The aim is to make its formal description in the spirit of integrative taxonomy, which means to demonstrate its distinctiveness by multiple lines of evidence, namely using molecular as well as morphological data. It also requires comparison to a reference sample of other species, which should be composed from our own collection and the requested loan. For both projects we request a series of skulls accompanied by tissue samples – namely pieces of dry tissue (from skin or skull scrapping) or by a piece of alcohol-preserved body. If both dry and alcoholic tissues were available, it would be good to have both as it is always hard to guess which one will work better. I am not aware of less intrusive way to obtain comparable data for our project. Notably, I have now access to micro-CT facility and the skulls of a new putative species should be compared to a reference sample of species using three-dimensional digital models rather than by analysis of photos or direct measurements (whose repeatability is always limited). The digital models will be made publicly available. In the last years our research group published a series of systematic and phylogeographic studies on African rodents using both molecular and morphometric methods, some of them employing DNA isolation and sequencing from old museum specimens (Bryja et al. 2014, Mikula et al. 2016, Aghová et al. 2017, Krásová et al. 2019). The costs of the research may be covered by our running phylogeographic project (Czech Science Foundation proj. no. 18-17398S) and by research money provided by institutions I am affiliated to. References: Aghová T, Šumbera R, Piálek L, Mikula O, McDonough M, Meheretu Y, Mbau J, Bryja J (2017) Multilocus phylogeny of East African gerbils (Rodentia, Gerbilliscus) reveals the history of the Somali-Masai savanna. Journal of Biogeography, 44: 2295–2307. doi:10.1111/jbi.13017. Bryja J, Mikula O, Šumbera R, Meheretu Y, Aghová T, Lavrenchenko LA, Mazoch V, Oguge N, Mbau JS, Welegerima K, Amundala N, Colyn M, Leirs H, E Verheyen (2014) Pan-African phylogeny of Mus (subgenus Nannomys) reveals one of the most successful mammal radiations in Africa. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 14: e256. doi: 10.1186/s12862-014-0256-2 Bryja J, Šumbera R, Peterhans JCK, Aghová T, Bryjová A, Mikula O, Nicolas V, Denys C, Verheyen E (2017) Evolutionary history of the thicket rats (genus Grammomys) mirrors the evolution of African forests since late Miocene. Journal of Biogeography, 44: 182-194. doi: 10.1111/jbi.12890 Chevret P, Dobigny G (2005) Systematics and evolution of the subfamily Gerbillinae (Mammalia, Rodentia, Muridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 35: 674–688. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2005.01.001 Krásová J., Mikula O., Mazoch V., Bryja J., Říčan O., Šumbera R. (2019) Evolution of the Grey-bellied pygmy mouse group: Highly structured molecular diversity with predictable geographic ranges but morphological crypsis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 130, 143–155. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.10.016 Mikula O, Šumbera R, Aghová T, Mbau J, Katakweba AS, Sabuni CA, Bryja J (2016) Evolutionary history and species diversity of African Pouched Mice of the genus Saccostomus (Rodentia: Nesomyidae: Cricetomyinae). Zoologica Scripta, 45: 595-617. doi: 10.1111/zsc.12179