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A new rodent species of the genus Mus (Rodentia: Muridae) confirms the biogeographical uniqueness of the isolated forests of southern Ethiopia

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Abstract

The Ethiopian highlands represent the largest part of the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot (EAMBH). Their fauna and flora are largely unique. Particularly, Afroalpine habitats on isolated mountains are known to harbour a large number of highly specialized endemic species. In contrast to intensively studied Afroalpine ecosystems, the forests in southern and southwestern parts of the Ethiopian highlands remain neglected in terms of biodiversity research, even though they represent the only remaining natural large-scale forests in this part of EAMBH. Here, we performed an integrative taxonomic revision (combining multi-locus phylogenetic analysis with classical and geometric morphometrics) and analysis of the evolutionary history of ancient lineages of the genus Mus, with a special focus on the taxon discovered in moist Ethiopian forests. We unequivocally showed that this taxon forms a very distinct gene pool separated from other taxa by the mid-Pliocene, substantially differentiated from both sympatric and sister species by external and cranial morphology. None of the available type specimens (including synonym types) can be unambiguously classified to this taxon according to both skull and body form. Therefore, we describe it as a new mammal species, narrowly endemic to two most humid forests in southern (Harenna) and southwestern (Chingawa) part of the Ethiopian highlands. The description of such paleo-endemic taxa will add incentives to embark on urgent conservation action for formal protection of these unique forests within the EAMBH.

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Availability of data and materials

GPS of localities, museum voucher numbers, GenBank Accession numbers and other details about specimens included in analyses are provided in Supplementary Information 1 (XLS file with five sheets with Tables S1–S5). New DNA sequences were uploaded to GenBank and their accession numbers (OL616297-OL616433) are in Supplementary Information 1.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. Darkov (Joint Ethio-Russian Biological Expedition, Fourth Phase—JERBE IV) and S. Keskes (Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology) for managing the JERBE expedition. We thank P. Kaňuch, M. Lövy, A. A. Warshavsky, A. N. Milishnikov, V. M. Aniskin and Yu. F. Ivlev for their help with field sampling. P. Benda is acknowledged for his taxonomical suggestions.

Funding

This study was supported by the bilateral project of the Czech Science Foundation and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (nos. 20-07091 J and 19–54-26003, respectively).

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Author notes

  1. Jarmila Krásová and Ondřej Mikula contributed equally to this article

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jarmila Krásová, Ondřej Mikula, Yonas Meheretu & Josef Bryja

  2. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jarmila Krásová & Radim Šumbera

  3. A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia

    Leonid A. Lavrenchenko

  4. Department of Biology and Institute of Mountain Research and Development, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia

    Yonas Meheretu

  5. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Josef Bryja

Authors
  1. Jarmila Krásová
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  2. Ondřej Mikula
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  3. Leonid A. Lavrenchenko
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  5. Yonas Meheretu
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Contributions

LAL, RS, YM and JB conceived and designed the study; LAL, RS and JB provided funding; JK, LAL, RS, YM and JB collected the material; JK performed genotyping; OM collected morphometric data and performed all data analyses; LAL described the species in the taxonomic part; JK, OM, YM and JB wrote the first draft of the manuscript that was complemented by all authors. All authors also approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josef Bryja.

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All fieldwork complied with legal regulations in Ethiopia and sampling was carried out with the permission of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and the Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise.

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Krásová, J., Mikula, O., Lavrenchenko, L.A. et al. A new rodent species of the genus Mus (Rodentia: Muridae) confirms the biogeographical uniqueness of the isolated forests of southern Ethiopia. Org Divers Evol 22, 491–509 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-022-00539-x

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