Kano mole
| Kano mole | ||||||||||||
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| Mogera kanoana | ||||||||||||
| Kawada , Shinohara , Kobayashi , Harada , Oda & Lin , 2007 |
The Kano mole ( Mogera kanoana ) is a species of mammal from the genus of the East Asian moles within the moles (Talpidae). It occurs on the island of Taiwan and lives there in high mountains, in coastal areas also in the lowlands. The animals are somewhat smaller and darker in color than the closely related Chinese island mole , also native to Taiwan , and there are also individual morphological differences. There is hardly any information about the way of life. The species was scientifically introduced in 2007.
features
Habitus
The Kano mole is a small type of mole, the head-trunk length varies from 11.3 to 13.3 cm, the weight is 35 to 55 g. The tail measures only 0.9 to 1.4 cm and thus reaches 7.5 to 11.6% of the length of the rest of the body. In contrast to the Chinese island mole ( Mogera insularis ), it is on average a little longer, its tail only makes up around 6.7% of the body length. In general, animals from the south of the island of Taiwan are larger than in the rest of the range. The fur is dense and dark in color, which is more a typical characteristic of the Eurasian moles ( Talpa ) than of the East Asian moles ( Mogera ). The color ranges from dark brown to black, compared to the Chinese island mole it is darker. The tail is covered with long hair. Also deviating from the Chinese island mole, the snout is long and narrow. On the nasal mirror , the nostrils open to the side and the tip of the nose stands far forward. The forefoot is between 13 and 16 mm long, the rear foot 13.5 to 15.5 mm.
Skull and dentition features
The skull of the Kano mole is small, the total length averages 30.4 mm. The palate is short and especially narrow on the rostrum . In side view, the rostrum bulges downward in front of the fourth premolar . The zygomatic arches are delicate and slightly bulge out to the side. The opening of the external ear canal is wide compared to that of the Chinese island mole. The teeth 42 is composed of teeth with the following tooth formula : . Typically, only two incisors are formed in the lower row of teeth in the genus Mogera . The first and last of the lower premolars protrude highest. The lower molars each have two main cusps, the rear of which is considerably lower than the anterior. In the upper row of teeth, the entire row of incisors forms a V, the inner pair is the largest. The premolars are loose and not as close together as in the Chinese island mole. The molars are rather small, due to the lack of a hypoconus they have a triangular shape. The length of the upper row of teeth is 12, that of the lower 11.1 mm. The upper molars each take up 5.1 mm, the lower 5.5 mm.
Skeletal features
In contrast to the Japanese representatives of the East Asian moles, the Kano mole has 13 instead of 14 thoracic vertebrae, which corresponds to the Chinese island mole. The humerus of Mogera kanoana is typically short and wide for moles, but compared to most other forms of Mogera it has a rather slender shape. The width is only a good 70% of the length, with the Chinese island mole it is about 75%. The pelvis is also slimmer than the Chinese island mole, while the shoulder blade is shorter.
distribution
The distribution area of the Kano mole is limited to the island of Taiwan . There, the species was detected on the slopes of the mountains Yushan and Alishan in the center of the island, near Shoufeng in the district of Hualien on the east coast and on the southern tip of the island. In the central part of Taiwan the specimens of the Kano mole come from the higher mountain areas around 2800 m with mainly deciduous forest cover. The animals also penetrate gardens, meadows and wasabi fields . In the lowland areas closer to the coast, the Kano mole has so far only been found on individual farm lands and in urban areas, but not on rice fields or other agricultural areas.
Way of life
Little information is available about the Kano mole's way of life. The animals dig tunnels and passages and leave behind small ejection mounds on the surface, which corresponds to the other representatives of the East Asian moles or those of the Eurasian moles. May compete the way with larger rat or used it as prey. So far, two pregnant females are known, each with three fetuses . One observation was made in March from higher mountain areas, the other from August in the southern flatlands. This may result in differences in the mating season of the local populations .
Systematics
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Internal systematics of the East Asian moles according to Shinohara et al. 2014
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The Kano mole is an independent species within the genus of the East Asian moles ( Mogera ) and the mole family (Talpidae). It provides molecular genetic studies have shown that sister species of the Chinese island Mole ( Mogera insularis is), who also happens to Taiwan. Both species separated from each other in the Pliocene around 4.5 million years ago. The La Touche mole ( Mogera latouchei ) from southern China and Vietnam is also closely related . The shape is sometimes viewed as a subspecies of the Chinese island mole, but has individual anatomical differences and split from the two Taiwanese species as early as the Miocene around 8 million years ago.
Cytogenetically, there are no major differences between the Kano mole and the Chinese island mole, since both species have a chromosome number of 2n = 32, consisting of nine meta-submetacentric, four subtelocentric and two acrocentric pairs. The X chromosome is medium-sized and metacentric, the Y chromosome is rather small. The Japanese representatives of Mogera , on the other hand, have 36 chromosomes, the South Chinese-Vietnamese form Mogera latouchei 30. No subspecies are distinguished for the Kano mole. However, there is greater genetic and morphological variability within the species than compared to the Chinese island mole.
The first scientific description of the Kano mole was published by a research team led by Shin-ichiro Kawada in 2007. The basis for this was formed by around a dozen animals from Taiwan, the majority of which were collected during three different expeditions to the central mountains between 2001 and 2003, including the holotype . This is a fully grown male from the Yushan National Park , the type area of the species, it was found in August 2002. The specific epithet honors Tadao Kano , who studied the nature and folklore of Taiwan intensively and assumed that there are several representatives of the moles on the island. Considerations go back to the 1930s, when the zoologist Kyukichi Kishida presented an animal from the mountains of Taiwan under the Japanese name Yamadi hime mogura (something like "little mountain mole"). A little later, other scientists, including Kano, referred to the species name Mogera montana under the authorship of Kishida. Its first description was never published, so Mogera montana is not a recognized taxon . However, a study from 2001 confirmed the occurrence of two morphologically different mole forms in Taiwan, which differ in the shape of the snout.
Hazard and protection
The IUCN does not currently operate the Kano Mole. The species occurs in both Yushan and Kenting National Park .
literature
- Shin-ichiro Kawada, Akio Shinohara, Shuji Kobayashi, Masashi Harada, Sen-ichi Oda and Liang-Kong Lin: Revision of the mole genus Mogera (Mammalia: Lipotyphla: Talpidae) from Taiwan. Systematics and Biodiversity 5 (2), 2007, pp. 223-240
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Shin-ichiro Kawada, Akio Shinohara, Shuji Kobayashi, Masashi Harada, Sen-ichi Oda and Liang-Kong Lin: Revision of the mole genus Mogera (Mammalia: Lipotyphla: Talpidae) from Taiwan . Systematics and Biodiversity 5 (2), 2007, pp. 223-240
- ↑ a b c Akio Shinohara, Shin-Ichiro Kawada, Nguyen Truong Son, Chihiro Koshimoto, Hideki Endo, Dang Ngoc Can and Hitoshi Suzuki: Molecular phylogeny of East and Southeast Asian fossorial moles (Lipotyphla, Talpidae). Journal of Mammalogy 95 (3), 2014, pp. 455-466
- ↑ LK Lin, M. Motokawa and M. Harada: Karyotype of Mogera insularis (Insectivora, Talpidae). Mammalian Biology 67, 2002, pp. 176-178
- ↑ Shin-ichiro Kawada, Sen-ichi Oda, Hideki Endo, Liang Kong Lin, Nguyen Truong Son and Dang Ngoc Can: A Comparative Karyological Study of Taiwanese and Vietnamese Mogera (Insectivora, Talpidae) and Classification. Memoir of the National Museum of Nature and Science 46, 2010, pp. 47-56
- ↑ Masatoshi Yasuda and Shin-ichiro Kawada: Notes on the validity of Mogera montana Kishida, 1932, for a mountain mole from Taiwan. Mammal Study 32, 2007, pp. 169-172
- ↑ Masaharu Motokawa, Liang-Kong Lin, Hsi-Chi Cheng and Masashi Harada: Taxonomic Status of the Senkaku Mole, Nesoscaptor uchidai, with Special Reference to Variation in Mogera insularis from Taiwan (Mammalia: Insectivora). Zoological Science 18 (5), 2001, pp. 733-740