Crocidura leucodon

4.2 Crocidura leucodon The phylogenetic reconstruction indicates that the Israeli C. leucodon forms a distinct clade related to the eastern clade (Figure 4, Dubey et al. 2007b). The different C. leucodon clades have been suggested to have diverged during the Pleistocene glaciations (Dubey et al. 2007b; Mahmoudi et al. 2019). It is unlikely however that the Israeli clade corresponds to a fourth refugium from the Ice Age. Rather, the observed mitochondrial genetic divergence is possibly the result of the edge position of the Israeli population at the southernmost part of the C. leucodon range. In agreement, Mendelssohn and Yom-Tov (1999) noted that C. leucodon is less abundant than C. s. gueldenstaedtii, basing their conclusion on the number of shrews deposited in museum collections. The current data available at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History support the view that the range of C. leucodon is more limited than that of C. suaveolens in Israel, since C. leucodon samples are rarer in the collection (79 leucodon vs. 594 suaveolens), and with one exception, restricted to the Mediterranean biome (Figure 1B). Edge populations have been suggested to harbor adaptive traits and genetic variability that may be important when considering future conservation needs (Hampe and Petit 2005; Mátýas et al. 2009). We thus also recommend that further population and genomic studies be carried out on this species, since its population status is currently unknown (Shenbrot et al. 2016), and assessment from museum collections alone may provide a biased representation of the population status.
Published as part of Shpirer, Erez, Haddas-Sasson, Michal, Spivak-Glater, Maya, Feldstein, Tamar, Meiri, Shai & Huchon, Dorothée, 2021, Molecular relationships of the Israeli shrews (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae) based on cytochrome b sequences, pp. 79-89 in Mammalia (Warsaw, Poland) (Warsaw, Poland) 85 (1) on page 86, DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2019-0143, http://zenodo.org/record/7837749
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