Karyological relationship between the Japanese house shrew, Suncus murinus riukiuanus and the Japanese white-toothed shrew, Crocidura dsinezumi chisai

The karyological relationship between the Japanese white- toothed shrew and the Japanese house shrew is examined, using G- and C-banding methods. The“homologous”chromosomes or chromosome regions between species as identified by the G-band homology amounted in total to almost 85% of the total chromosome length of C. d. chisai. These findings strongly indicate that the G-bands of these two shrew species have highly been conserved throughout the course of their phylogenesis in spite of marked differentiation in their morphology and ecological characteristics.