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The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature allows the naming of new species without a type specimen ever having been preserved. This practice causes problems and is undesirable because if related, cryptic, sibling species are encountered later, it may not be possible either to allocate them with certainty to the earlier named species, or to determine them to be something different. We hypothesised that examination of the instances in which mammalian species were named without preserved types would reveal certain problems that are not unique to them, but are encountered more frequently than when types are preserved. We also thought the Code's stipulation that preserved types are not required in the case of specimens that are no longer ‘extant’ would present special problems hitherto unremarked upon in the literature. We conducted a review of cases involving putative new species of mammal named since 1900. These were analysed to see what special problems they present and the frequency of such problems. We found that the Code's waiver of the requirement that a type specimen be deposited in a collection if the specimen is no longer extant presents numerous problems—in particular, that a living-at-large type specimen can still be ‘extant’ even if its whereabouts are unknown at certain times and/or it may no longer be alive. Illustrations alone being used to designate type specimens is especially problematic, owing to mammals’ lack of meristic and other obvious distinguishing external characters. Hoaxes, the difficulty in determining that they are hoaxes, and various errors of taxonomic allocation appear to be especially common with names without preserved types. The Code should be revised to require preserved specimens as types for new names. Tissue samples alone for DNA analysis are not ideal for serving this purpose, but should be allowed to meet the requirement.

We describe a new species of Rattus , from 3 modern specimens collected on Manus Island in the Admiralty Group, Papua New Guinea, between 2002 and 2012. Subfossil specimens of early to late Holocene age from the Pamwak archaeological site on Manus Island are referred to the new species on morphological criteria; these confirm the species as a long-term resident of Manus Island. The new species is distinguished by its combination of large size; short tail; dorsal pelage that is coarse, spiny, and dark, with prominent black guard hairs; and sharply contrasting cream ventral pelage. Based on its overall body form, the species is almost certainly terrestrial. The dentition combines robust incisors with relatively small molars and the cranium displays a distinctive melange of characters—including an elongate and anteriorly expanded rostrum and a mesopterygoid fossa that is narrow anteriorly and broadens to the rear. Sequence data from the mitochondrial control region and 3 nuclear genes place the new species as a highly divergent member of the Australo–Papuan Rattus radiation, with no identified close relative among sampled taxa. Morphological comparisons are made between the new species and other pertinent species of Rattus from the region, including R. sanila , a species known only from Late Pleistocene fossil to Late Holocene subfossil remains from an archaeological site on New Ireland. The conservation status of the new species is discussed in the light of a recent survey that failed to locate surviving populations in 2 areas of natural forest on Manus Island. Further survey work is urgently needed to identify any surviving populations and to assess the role of potential threats to the species.

We expand upon recent studies on relationships within the Oryzomyini, in particular, those involving taxa currently assigned to the genus Sigmodontomys. In recent years, Sigmodontomys has been treated as including 2 species, alfari (J. A. Allen, 1897) and aphrastus (Harris, 1932), but throughout their complicated taxonomic history both species also have been placed in the genus Oryzomys, and alfari independently in Nectomys. Using morphological (98 external, cranial, dental, and postcranial) and molecular (nuclear interphotoreceptor retinoid–binding protein gene and mitochondrial cytochrome-b and ribosomal 12S RNA genes) characters, we infer the phylogenetic position of these 2 species within Oryzomyini. We document that alfari and aphrastus do not form a monophyletic group. Sigmodontomys alfari is most closely related to Melanomys, and aphrastus is either the sister to that clade, or to the extinct Caribbean genus Megalomys. Thus, aphrastus is best regarded as representing a new genus, which is ...

A new species of the didelphid marsupial genus Monodelphis is described from the eastern Bolivian province of Santa Cruz. The new species, currently known from a single specimen, belongs to the M. brevicaudata group but differs from other taxa within that clade (M. brevicaudata, M. domestica, M. glirina, M. maraxina, and M. palliolata) in size, qualitative morphological characters, and cytochrome-b gene sequences.

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No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-03-14 Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo Chelonian Research Institute Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature Department of Marine Invertebratesn Museum School of Biological Earth & Environmental Sciences University of New South Wales Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) Department of Biology University of Washington Universidad de Atacama Copiapó and Programa de Doctorado en Sistemática y Biodiversidad Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas Universidad de Concepción Department of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Kunigami District Laboratório de Ictiologia Departamento de Zoologia IBB-UNESP Campus de Botucatu FishBase Information and Research Group IRRI Campus Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology Department Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Zoologische Staatssammlung München Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns Department of Life Sciences Natural History Museum Australian National Herbarium Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research CSIRO National Research Collections Australian Capital Territory College of Medicine Biology and Environment Research School of Biologyn National Universityn Capital Territory Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University Canadian National Collection of Insects Arachnids and Nematodes Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Institut de Systématique Evolution Biodiversité Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Sorbonne Universités Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History Department of Biology Hofstra University Naturalis Biodiversity Center Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences School of Life Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal Plant Gateway Ltd. Department of Natural Sciences Gardner-Webb University Department of Biology Villanova University Potato Research Center Georgikon Faculty University of Pannonia Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologia 'Charles Darwin' Sapienza Università di Roma Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Johns Hopkins University Department of Environmental Science and Technology University of Maryland Department of Plant Medicine Chungbuk National University Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology University of Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Science University of Auckland Centre for Agricultural Research Hungarian Academy of Sciences Department of Zoology Eszterházy Károly University Herbarium School of Biological Sciences University of Reading Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas Facultad de Ciencias Universidad Austral de Chile Department of Biosciences University of Helsinki Ornithological Nomenclature Expert Green Plant Herbarium Department of Natural History Royal Ontario Museum Nomenclature Specialist CITES Animals Committee; Turtle Conservancy Global Wildlife Conservation Department of Plant Anatomy Institute of Biology Eötvös Loránd University Department of Biosciences (Plant Biology) Viikki Plant Science Centre Illinois Natural History Survey Institute of Biodiversity Science and Sustainability California Academy of Sciences Royal Botanic Gardens Kew NTNU University Museum Norwegian University of Science and Technology Institut de Biologia Evolutiva Universitat Pompeu Fabra Bioveyda Biodiversity Inventories and Research Department of Plant Biology Ecology & Evolution and Herbarium Oklahoma State University Research School of Earth Sciencesn National Universityn Capital Territory Departamento de Biologia Animal Instituto de Biologia Universidade Estadual de Campinas Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Department of Botany Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch California Department of Food and Agriculture PPG Zoologia Departamento de Zoologia Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Macleay Museum University of Sydney Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Edinburgh Research Station Laboratório de Coleções Zoológicas Instituto Butantan Environmental Management School of Applied and Biomedical Science Federation University PPG Biodiversidade Animal Universidade Federal de Santa Maria National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Department of Terrestrial Zoology Western Australian Museum Museu Nacional da História Natural e da Ciência Universidade de Lisboa The Kyoto University Museum Kyoto University Finnish Museum of Natural History (Botany) University of Helsinki Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences and Environment Institute University of Adelaide Nees Institut für Biodiversität der Pflanzen Universität Bonn Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology University of Pannonia Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum National University of Singapore Denver Botanic Gardens Department of Biology Earlham College Montana Entomology Collection Montana State University School of Environmental Sciences University of Guelph Instituto de Ambiente de Montaña y Regiones Áridas Universidad Nacional de Chilecito Martha N. and John C. Moser Chair in Arthropod Systematics and Biological Diversity The Ohio State University Department of Biology Victor Valley College Identification and Naming Department Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Natural History Laboratory Faculty of Science Ibaraki University Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden University of Tartu Plant Protection Institute Centre for Agricultural Research Hungarian Academy of Sciences Department of Zoology Denver Museum of Nature & Science Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany Universität Wien FishBase Department of Zoology Swedish Museum of Natural History Department of Zoology Museo Civico di Storia Naturale of Verona Departamento de Zoologia Universidade Federal do Paraná Sezione di Zoologia degli Invertebrati e Idrobiologia MUSE-Museo delle Scienze di Trento Centro de Ciências Agrárias Ambientais e Biológicas Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia Department of Biological Sciences University of Toronto Department of Environmental Science and Policy George Mason University Natural History Museum of Geneva Department of Genetics and Evolution University of Geneva Departamento de Zoologia Universidade de Brasília Department of Integrative Biology Oregon State Arthropod Collection Oregon State University Henares 16 Velilla de San Antonio Department of Vertebrate Zoology National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution International Committee on Bionomenclature Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias Jaboticabal Departamento de Biologia Aplicada à Agropecuária Faculty of Biology Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași Departamento de Biología Universidad de Los Andes Laboratorio de Morfología Animal Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo H.W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology University of Nebraska-Lincoln Robert Bebb Herbarium (OKL) University of Oklahoma Oklahoma Biological Survey Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology Fiocruz Mata Atlântica Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ehime University Department of Zoology Hungarian Natural History Museum Department of Science Education Hiroshima University Department of Earth Sciences Natural History Museum Kazan Federal University Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions-und Biodiversitätsforschung Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb) e Ingeniería en Biodiversidad y Recursos Genéticos Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica Integrated Taxonomic Information System National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Natural History Museum of Denmark Department of Botany Szent István University University of Sydney Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University Biodiversity Institute University of Kansas CITES Scientific Authority Finnish Museum of Natural History (Botany) University of Helsinki Instituto de Botânica Department of Entomology Kerala Agricultural University University of Michigan Herbarium EEB Chelonian Research Foundation Turtle Conservancy Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas Facultad de Ciencias Universidad Austral de Chile Kansas Biological Survey and the Biodiversity Institute University of Kansas Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul Sciences Department Museums Victoria Department of Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Biology Portland State University Department of Biological Sciences Texas Tech University Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics Swedish Museum of Natural History Laboratorio de Sistemática y Biología Comparada de Insectos Instituto de Ciencias Naturales Universidad Nacional de Colombia Global Biodiversity Information Facility Fragile Inheritance Natural History National Focal Point to the Convention on Biological Diversity Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Department of Biology Pittsburg State University Departamento de Zoologia Instituto de Biociências Universidade de São Paulo Agricultural Research Council Plant Protection Research Instituten National Collection of Insects Section of Mollusks Carnegie Museum of Natural History Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia National Parks Board Botanic Gardens Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas Judicial Commission on Prokaryote Nomenclature Botanische Staatssammlung München and SNSB IT Center Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns Permanent ICN Nomenclature Committee for Fungi International Mycological Association Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi Università di Torino Istituto per la Protezione Sostenibile delle Piante sez. di Torino CNR Department of Environmental Sciences University of Basel Allwetterzoo Münster Department of Biology University of Hawai'i at Manoa UNC Herbarium (NCU) North Carolina Botanical Garden University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Abteilung Morphologie und Systematik der Tiere und Zoologisches Museum Universität Göttingen Unité Mixte de Recherche Peuplements Végétaux et Bioaggresseurs en Milieu Tropical Université de La Réunion Essig Museum of Entomology University of California Berkeley General Committee for Nomenclature [for algae fungi and plants] Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Smithsonian Marine Station Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Lab School of Biological Sciences Bangor University Department of Entomology Entomology Research Museum University of California Australian National Insect Collection CSIRO National Research Collections Australian Capital Territory School of Life Sciences Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center Hasbrouck Insect Collection Arizona State University Landcare Research School of Biological Sciences University of Auckland Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District Laboratório de Ictiologia Departamento de Zoologia IBB-UNESP Campus de Botucatu Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias Jaboticabal Departamento de Biologia Aplicada à Agropecuária

Until now, there has been a single Paraguayan record of climbing rats of the genus Rhipidomys (Tschudi, 1845), and the specimen has not been identified at the species level. Remarkably, this record has been overlooked in recent mammal lists. Field work conducted in Paraguay during and since 2006 has produced the second and third records of Rhipidomys for this country. We conducted an assessment of external and skull morphologic variation, as well as Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian analyses based on DNA sequences, all of which indicate that all three known Paraguayan specimens of Rhipidomys belong to the species Rhipidomys macrurus (Gervais, 1855). In addition, we provide information distinguishing R. macrurus from some of its congeners, as well as new natural history data. There is now a total of 31 sigmodontine species with published Paraguayan records.

Very little information exists relevant to the species grouping and phylogenetic relationships of the opossum genus Mono-delphis Burnett. Of the clearly distinct named species, the least information is available for M. unistriata (Wagner), one of the world’s most poorly known species of mammals. Extant specimens consist of the Brazilian holotype of a skin now without a skull and dating from almost 200 years ago, and a second specimen with skin and incomplete skull dating from over a hundred years ago and from Argentina. The most recent published notes on the holotype date from well over half a century ago and, all told, such notes, the earliest dating from 1842, add up to a highly fragmentary and contradictory picture. No observations whatsoever have ever been published for the second and more complete specimen. Also, no hy-potheses have ever been made concerning the intrageneric affinities of M. unistriata and such affinities have also been obscure throughout the genus. Herein, we provide a detailed redescription of M. unistriata , the first published images of specimens, and the first account, beyond the previous few most vague and incomplete remarks, of the morphology of the skull. In an effort to ascertain the phylogenetic affinities of M. unistriata , we performed a combined molecular (cyto-chrome b ) and nonmolecular (postcranial, cranial, integument, and karyotypic characters) parsimony analysis incorporat-ing 27 species of didelphids, including 11 of Monodelphis . Our results strongly support the monophyly of Monodelphis , and place M. unistriata as sister group to M. iheringi , among the included species.

Mouse opossums of the genus Marmosa Gray (Didelphidae) represent a complex of taxa with poorly understood affinities. Species now placed within this genus are mostly the leftovers from previous taxonomic arrangements. Even the most recent and complete revisions have not fully resolved the relationships among Marmosa and the many taxa previously included in Marmosa or listed as synonyms of it. Herein, we review and discuss one of these taxa, Stegomarmosa, based on new specimens that significantly increase our knowledge of the morphological diversification of the group. Until recently, this genus/subgenus has been known only from a single specimen taken more than 50 years ago in southeastern Peru. In 1997-1998, six additional specimens were collected at two little-separated localities almost 200 km NW of the type locality. We include a detailed diagnosis of the genus-group Stegomarmosa and its type species, M. andersoni, and update the distribution for and provide new information on the natural history of the latter. We also discuss published claims, concerning geographic range, that may be inaccurate and misleading. Finally, we scored the morphological characters used in the most recent phylogenetic analyses of the didelphids, in order to explore the affinities of M. andersoni and to determine the distinctiveness of the taxon Stegomarmosa.

A new subgenus of Marmosa and its type species are described from Peru. Morphological characters separating the new subgenus from currently recognized subgenera of murine opossums are presented. Characters separating the new species from other species of Marmosa found to be sympatric with it are also discussed.

A complete list of the non-volant wild mammals believed to be now living in Belém, Para, Brazil and vicinity or which may have lived there within historic times is presented. The list includes 72 species : 9 opossums, 6 primates, 10 edentates, 1 rabbit, 3 introduced commensal rodents, 18 native rodents, 2 cetaceans, 17 carnivores, 1 manatee, 1 tapir, and 4 artiodactyls. Relevant synonomies, recognition characters and notes on taxonomy and natural history are provided. A non-technical key is included which is intended to be of especial use by non-mammalogists such as paramedical researchers.

Monodelphis emihae (Thomas) generalement considere comme conspecifique avec M. brevicaudata (Erxleben), est une espece distincte sympatrique de M. brevicaudata. D'abord connu seulement de la rive occidentale de Rio Tapagos, M. emiliae existe aussi sur la rive orientale et au Perou. M. emiliae presente comme certains autres didelphides une coloration fugitive qui est en correlation avec sa fluorescence en lumiere ultraviolette

Evidence from morphological and behavioral investigations shows that the genus Brachyphylla, presently referred to the subfamily Stenoderminae, is more properly regarded as a phyllonycterine. Certain aspects of the natural history of Cuban phyllonycterines are discussed.