Neotropical Rainforest Mammals. A Field Guide, Louise H. Emmons. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1990), xiv, Illustrations by François Feer, +281. Price $45·00 hardback, $19·95 paperback

This is the oldest English language journal in genetics. Founded by W. Bateson and R. C. Punnett in 1910, the Journal of Genetics was later edited by J. B. S. Haldane; later, Haldane and his wife, Helen Spurway brought the journal with them to India. After his death in 1964, Mrs. Haldane continued publication of the journal, with Madhav Gadgil and H. Sharat Chandra (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) and Suresh Jayakar (Laboratorio de Genetica Biochimica ed Evoluzionistica, Pavia) as editors, until her own death in 1977. In 1985, with the permission of Haldane’s heirs, the Indian Academy of Sciences resumed publication of the journal. The journal retains its traditional interest in evolutionary research that is of relevance to geneticists, even if not explicitly genetic in nature.

The journal of genetics

Identifying general patterns of colonization and radiation in island faunas is often hindered by past human-caused extinctions. The insular Caribbean is one of the only complex oceanic-type island systems colonized by land mammals, but has witnessed the globally highest level of mammalian extinction during the Holocene. Using ancient DNA analysis, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of one of the Caribbean's now-extinct major mammal groups, the insular radiation of oryzomyine rice rats. Despite the significant problems of recovering DNA from prehistoric tropical archaeological material, it was possible to identify two discrete Late Miocene colonizations of the main Lesser Antillean island chain from mainland South America by oryzomyine lineages that were only distantly related. A high level of phylogenetic diversification was observed within oryzomyines across the Lesser Antilles, even between allopatric populations on the same island bank. The timing of oryzomyine colonization is closely similar to the age of several other Caribbean vertebrate taxa, suggesting that geomorphological conditions during the Late Miocene facilitated broadly simultaneous overwater waif dispersal of many South American lineages to the Lesser Antilles. These data provide an important baseline by which to further develop the Caribbean as a unique workshop for studying island evolution.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2014.2371

Unexpected evolutionary diversity in a recently extinct Caribbean mammal radiation.

The Greater Antillean insectivores. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 115, article 3

32 p. : ill. (1 col.), 1 map ; 26 cm.
"August 28, 2009."
Abstract also in Spanish.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-30).

A new species of the rodent genus Oecomys (Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae, Oryzomyini) from eastern Bolivia, with emended definitions of O. concolor (Wagner) and O. mamorae (Thomas). (American Museum novitates, no. 3661)

The rodent genus Oecomys (Sigmodontinae) comprises ~16 species that inhabit tropical and subtropical forests in Central America and South America. In this study specimens of Oecomys paricola Thomas, 1904 from Belem and Marajo island, northern Brazil, were investigated using cytogenetic, molecular and morphological analyses. Three karyotypes were found, two from Belem (2n = 68, fundamental number (FN) = 72 and 2n = 70, FN = 76) and a third from Marajo island (2n = 70, FN = 72). No molecular or morphological differences were found between the individuals with differing cytotypes from Belem, but differences were evident between the individuals from Belem and Marajo island. Specimens from Belem city region may represent two cryptic species because two different karyotypes are present in the absence of significant differences in morphology and molecular characteristics. The Marajo island and Belem populations may represent distinct species that have been separated for some time, and are in the process of morphological and molecular differentiation as a consequence of reproductive isolation at the geographic and chromosomal levels. Thus, the results suggest that O. paricola may be a complex of species.

T. Flores

Papers

Genetic and morphological variability in South American rodent Oecomys (Sigmodontinae, Rodentia): evidence for a complex of species