Father David Mole

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Father David Mole
Systematics
Order : Insect eater (Eulipotyphla)
Family : Moles (Talpidae)
Subfamily : Old World Moles (Talpinae)
Tribe : Actual moles (Talpini)
Genre : Eurasian moles ( Talpa )
Type : Father David Mole
Scientific name
Talpa davidiana
( Milne-Edwards , 1884)

The Pater David's mole ( Talpa davidiana ) is a species of mammal from the family of moles (Talpidae) within the order of the insectivores (Eulipotyphla). It is a little-studied representative mole that occurs in western Asia , mainly in the south and south-east of Turkey and in the west of Iran . There he inhabits higher mountain areas with meadow landscapes. There is hardly any information about the way of life. Outwardly, the Father David mole resembles other members of the Eurasian mole. He has a dark fur. It is characterized by its wide, short snout and a set of teeth with a widely varying number of teeth. Above all, the short snout meant that the species was initially associated with the short-faced mole from East Asia , but anatomical and genetic studies refer it to the Eurasian moles. The species was scientifically introduced in 1884. The threat to the population is unknown.

features

Habitus

The Pater David mole reaches a head-trunk length of 11.5 to 13.4 cm. The tail becomes 1.8 to 3.0 cm long again. This makes it extremely short and at the same time the comparatively shortest of all Western Eurasian moles. The weight varies from 42 to 80 g. Outwardly, the Pater David mole corresponds to the Levantine mole ( Talpa levantis ), but is on average slightly larger than this. Like all Eurasian moles, the body is cylindrical in shape and robustly built, the head sits on a short neck and the front feet are shovel-like and turned outwards. The body fur of the Father David mole is dark in color, the nasal surface is light. The length of the hind foot is 1.8 to 2.0 cm.

Skull and dentition features

The skull of the Father David mole measures 28.3 to 34.3 mm in length and on the cranium between 14.0 and 18.0 mm in width. The maximum height here is also 8.0 to 9.8 mm. A special feature is the extremely robust rostrum , which is clearly pointed towards the front . At the height of the canine , it is 4 to 5.8 mm wide, which corresponds to about 14.9 to 17.3% of the length of the skull. For the Levantine mole, which also occurs in West Asia , the ratio is below 14.5%. It is relatively the widest rostrum of all European moles. The lower jaw is slender and 19.7 to 22.2 mm in length. The bit is extremely variable with a number of teeth between 38 and 44. The teeth formula is: . The strong oligodontia of the dentition is striking , which occurs more frequently in smaller individuals than in larger individuals, and usually affects the two middle upper and lower premolars (P2-3 and p2-3) and the lower rear incisor (i3). The rearmost upper incisor usually protrudes over the two inner ones. The molars have a robust construction. The length of the row of teeth in the upper jaw ranges from 10.6 to 14.6 mm.

Genetic traits

The diploid set of chromosomes is 2n = 34. The X chromosome is metacentric, the Y chromosome speckled and acrocentric. The autosomes consist of 15 pairs of meta-submetacentric and one pair of acrocentric chromosomes.

distribution and habitat

Distribution area of ​​the Father David mole (only eastern part)

The Father David Mole is found in Western Asia . There he is only known from individual, sometimes widely scattered sites. Of these, two are in western Iran and a good half a dozen in southern and southeastern Turkey . The eastern limit of distribution is reached with Divandarreh and Hezar Darreh in the Iranian province of Kordestān , the western is located on the plateau of Kızıldağ in the Turkish province of Adana . This means that the known deposit extends for more than 800 km in an east-west direction. However, it may not be continuous, but split into two sub-areas (south-eastern Turkey / western Iran and southern Turkey / northern Syria), which are separated from each other by a gap of around 450 km. The greatest north-south distance is about 400 km. Most of the sites are concentrated in the region around Tatvan and Hakkâri in southeastern Turkey ( Bitlis and Hakkâri provinces ). The habitats used are at altitudes between 1500 and 2400 m above sea level. Individual observations took place in hay fields and on alpine meadows. Apart from this, an individual of the Pater David mole was found in the remains of a vault of the barn owl near the fortress of Qal'at Salah ed-Din in western Syria about 150 km south of the known occurrence of the species. This region is only around 370 m above sea level. Overall, it is the southernmost occurrence of a member of the Eurasian mole. Only in Tatvan is an overlap with the distribution area of ​​the Levantine mole documented.

Way of life

The way of life of the Father David mole is largely unexplored. Like other representatives of the Eurasian moles, he creates underground tunnels, the entrances of which are marked by typical mounds of ejecta.

Systematics

Internal systematics of the Eurasian moles according to Demırtaş et al. 2020
 Talpa  


 Talpa altaica


   

 Talpa ognevi


   

 Talpa caucasica




   


 Talpa talyschensis


   

 Talpa davidiana



   

 Talpa caeca


   

 Talpa stankovici


   

 Talpa transcaucasica


   

 Talpa levantis



   

 Talpa romana


   

 Talpa martinorum


   


 Talpa occidentalis


   

 Talpa aquitania



   

 Talpa europaea





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Alphonse Milne-Edwards

The Pater David mole is a species from the genus of the Eurasian mole ( Talpa ), which includes around a dozen others with the European mole ( Talpa europaea ) as the most famous representative. The Eurasian moles in turn are assigned to the tribe of the actual moles (Talpini) within the family of the moles (Talpidae). The actual moles summarize the mostly digging representatives of the moles. Other members of the family, however, live only partially underground, move above ground or have a semi-aquatic way of life.

The Pater David Mole was first described scientifically in 1884 by Alphonse Milne-Edwards . He used the scientific name Scaptochirus davidianus for this and referred the shape to the family environment of the short-faced mole ( Scaptochirus moschatus ). As a special feature, Milne-Edwards highlighted the small body size, the very short tail and the gray to black coat color. A male individual from the area around Meydan Ekbaz in northern Syria was available for his description . The region is considered to be rather unsuitable for the species due to its location at an altitude of only around 400 m. Some researchers therefore suspect that the specimen copy originally came from higher areas. The animal was transmitted by Father Armand David , to whom the specific epithet refers. The name Scaptochirus davidianus had already been used in 1870 by Robert Swinhoe in a catalog of the mammals of China in relation to the short-faced mole. In the publication Swinhoe referred to the authorship of Milne-Edwards, although his first description of the Father David Mole was not to appear until 14 years later. As a rule, Scaptochirus davidianus is regarded as a noun oblitum according to Swinhoe 1870 .

In the period that followed, the Father David Mole remained largely unexplored. The extremely robust skull and the oligodontic teeth, both typical of the East Asian short-faced mole, advocated a position within the genus Scaptochirus . The sacrum, on the other hand, has a caecoidal structure (the opening of the foramen on the fourth sacral vertebra is directed backwards), which differs from the mogerid type (the opening of the fifth sacral vertebra is covered by a bone bridge at the back) in the short-faced mole. A good 80 years after the species was scientifically introduced in 1966, it was synonymous with the blind mole ( Talpa caeca ) . Some authors supported this equation. Only new observations and comparative anatomical studies in 2001 by Boris Kryštufek and research colleagues led on the one hand to the confirmation of the position of the Father David mole within the Eurasian mole, on the other hand to the separation of the shape from the blind mole and recognition as an independent species on the other hand, in the 1990s, Pater David mole was equated with the Levantine mole .

The view as an independent species was later substantiated by molecular genetic studies. According to these, the closest relationship of the Pater David mole to the Talysh mole ( Talpa talyschensis ) on the south coast of the Caspian Sea . Together with the Caucasian mole ( Talpa caucasica ), both species form a closer family group, which had already separated from the other lineages in the Upper Miocene 6.6 to 5.5 million years ago shortly after the Eurasian moles were formed. The separation of the Pater David mole from the Talysh mole dates back to the transition from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene a little more than 2 million years ago. The blind mole and the Levantine mole, on the other hand, belong to different relationships.

In 1965, Douglas M. Lay named Talpa streeti, another form from West Asia , more precisely from the Iranian province of Kordestān , which was also extremely short-nosed. Partly referred to in German as "Persian Mole", in 2001 it was considered by Kryštufek to be identical to the Pater David Mole. There are remains of a mole from the Upper Pleistocene of the Tabun Cave in Israel , which Dorothea MA Bate gave the scientific name Talpa chthonia in 1937 . Today, the species is synonymous with the Father David mole. According to this, the range of the current species in the Pleistocene extended around 400 km further south.

Threat and protection

The degree of endangerment of the Father David Mole is unknown. The IUCN therefore classifies it in the category of "insufficient data basis" ( data deficient ). The habitat of the species is subject to strong changes due to the expansion of urban settlement and economic areas. Afforestation programs also impair the usable habitat . In this way, between 1986 and 2013, numerous grasslands in the higher mountain regions of southeastern Turkey were lost.

literature

  • Boris Kryštufek and Masaharu Motokawa: Talpidae (Moles, Desmans, Star-nosed Moles and Shrew Moles). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths, Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, pp. 552–620 (p. 609) ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4
  • Boris Kryštufek, Friederike Spitzenberger and H. Kefelioğlu: Description, taxonomy, and distribution of Talpa davidiana. Mammalian Biology 66, 2001, pp. 135-143
  • Boris Kryštufek and Vladimír Vohralík: Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus. Introduction, Checklist, Insectivora. Koper, 2001, pp. 1–140 (pp. 98–100)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Boris Kryštufek, Friederike Spitzenberger and H. Kefelioğlu: Description, taxonomy, and distribution of Talpa davidiana. Mammalian Biology 66, 2001, pp. 135-143
  2. ↑ a b c Boris Kryštufek and Vladimír Vohralík: Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus. Introduction, Checklist, Insectivora. Koper, 2001, pp. 1–140 (pp. 102–104)
  3. ↑ a b c d e Mustafa Sözen, Ferhat Matur, Faruk Çolan and Sercan Irmak: Karyological characteristics, morphological peculiarities, and a new distribuion locality for Talpa davidiana (Mammalia: Soricomorpha) in Turkey. Turk Journal of Zoology 36 (6), 2012, pp. 806-813, doi: 10.3906 / zoo-1201-13
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Boris Kryštufek and Masaharu Motokawa: Talpidae (Moles, Desmans, Star-nosed Moles and Shrew Moles). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths, Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, pp. 552–620 (p. 609) ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4
  5. ↑ Ahmet Yesari Selçuk, Alaettin Kaya and Haluk Kefelioğlu: Differences in shape and size of skull and mandible in Talpa species (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla) from Turkey. Zoology in the Middle East 65 (1), 2019, pp. 20-27, doi: 10.1080 / 09397140.2018.1552304
  6. ^ Atilla Arslan and Jan Zima: Karyotypes of the mammals of Turkey and neighboring regions: a review. Folia Zoologica 63 (1), 2014, pp. 1–62, doi: 10.25225 / fozo.v63.i1.a1.2014
  7. ^ A b Douglas M. Lay: A new species of mole (genus Talpa) from Kurdistan Province, Western Iran. Fieldiana Zoology 44 (24), 1965, pp. 227-230 ( [1] )
  8. ↑ Petr Benda and Ján Obuch: First record of a mole in Syria (Soricomorpha: Talpidae: Talpa). Lynx, ns (Prague) 40, 2009, pp. 129-132
  9. ↑ Sadık Demırtaş, Metin Silsüpür, Jeremy B. Searle, David Bilton and İslam Gündüz: What should we call the Levant mole? Unraveling the systematics and demography of Talpa levantis Thomas, 1906 sensu lato (Mammalia: Talpidae). Mammalian Biology 100, 2020, pp. 1-18, doi: 10.1007 / s42991-020-00010-4
  10. ↑ a b Kai He, Akio Shinohara, Kristofer M. Helgen, Mark S. Springer, Xue-Long Jiang and Kevin L. Campbell: Talpid Mole Phylogeny Unites Shrew Moles and Illuminates Overlooked Cryptic Species Diversity. Molecular Biology and Evolution 34 (1), 2016, pp. 78-87
  11. ^ Alphonse Milne-Edwards: Sur la Classification des Taupes de l'ancien continent. Comptes rendus des seances de l'Academie des Sciences 99, 1884, pp. 1141–1143 ( [2] )
  12. ^ Robert Swinhoe: Catalog of the mammals of China (south of the River Yangtsze) and of the island of Formosa. Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London 1870, pp. 615-653 ( [3] )
  13. ↑ JR Ellerman and TCS Morrison-Scott: Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946. London, 1966, pp. 1–808 (pp. 38–39) ( [4] )
  14. ↑ Anna A. Bannikova, Elena D. Zemlemerova, Paolo Colangelo, Mustafa Sözen, M. Sevindik, Artem A. Kidov, Ruslan I. Dzuev, Boris Kryštufek and Vladimir S. Lebedev: An underground burst of diversity - a new look at the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Talpa Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Talpidae) as revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 175, 2015, pp. 930-948
  15. ^ Dorothea MA Bate: New Pleistocene mammals from Palestine. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Series 10, 20 (117), 1937, pp. 397-400
  16. ↑ Boris Kryštufek, Vladimír Vohralík and Ján Obuch: Endemism, vulnerability and conservation issues for small terrestrial mammals from the Balkans and Anatolia. Folia Zoologica 58 (3), 2009, pp. 291-302
  17. ^ R. Gerrie and R. Kennerley: Talpa davidiana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017. e.T135458A22321046 ( [5] ); last accessed on January 20, 2020

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