Molecular phylogeny of East and Southeast Asian fossorial moles (Lipotyphla, Talpidae)

The diversity of fossorial moles in East and Southeast Asia is contained in the 2 species-rich genera Mogera (8 species) and Euroscaptor (8 or more species), and the 3 monospecific genera Scapanulus, Scaptochirus, and Parascaptor. To better understand the evolution and biogeography of these fossorial moles, we conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses using mitochondrial cytochrome-b (Cytb; 1,140 base pairs [bp]) and 12S rRNA (approximately 830 bp) and nuclear recombination activating gene 1 (Ragl; 1,010 bp) gene sequences from 5 species of Euroscaptor, 6 of Mogera, and the single species of Scaptochirus. Phylogenetic estimates revealed 5 distinct lineages of East and Southeast Asian fossorial moles: Mogera, Scaptochirus, Euroscaptor mizura, E. parvidens, and E. malayana-E. klossi-E. longirostris. Our results support the monophyly of Mogera but not Euroscaptor, indicating a need for taxonomic revision of the latter genus. We hypothesize that Mogera originated in the central portion of its range and then dispersed to peripheral islands, such as Taiwan and the Japanese Islands. The fragmented distribution of Southeast Asian Euroscaptor presumably arose from habitat competition (invasion) from Mogera species, long-range dispersal, vicariance events, or a combination of these, explaining the high species richness of fossorial moles in this region.