Biosystematic study of Calomyscus mystax (Rodentia, Calomyscidae) from northeastern Iran

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

• Safie Akbarirad ¹
• Jamshid Darvish ¹
• Mansour Aliabadian ¹
• C. William Kilpatrick ²

¹ Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405-0086, USA

10.22067/ijab.v11i1.46145

Abstract

We use a combination of traditional and geometric morphometric plus phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences to confirm the presence in the Kopetdagh Mts. of northeastern Iran (North Khorasan province) of the Great Balkhan brush-tailed mouse, Calomyscus mystax Kashkarov, 1925 previously regarded as endemic to the Nibit-Dag region of southwestern Turkmenistan. We further compare C. mystax to other brush-tailed mice species in eastern and northern Iran and provide diagnostic external and craniodental characters for each and to examine the affinities with C. grandis with which C. mystax shares a similar karyotype.

Keywords

• Calomyscus mystax
• Kopetdagh Mts
• northeastern Iran

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