First PhD's paper by Mathilde uncovering a hidden species of armadillo published in Systematic Biology!
Updated: 10 hours ago
Mathilde first PhD work on species delimitation in the long-nosed armadillo species complex has been published in Systematic Biology (doi:10.1093/sysbio/syae027). This study revealed a disctinct species of long-nosed armadillo endemic to the Guianan shield (Dasypus guianensis) that we describes. We also CT-scanned the type specimen hosted at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). We published and made the 3D-data freely available through MorphoMuseuM (doi:10.18563/journal.m3.204).
The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is the most widespread xenarthran species across the Americas. Recent studies have suggested it is composed of four morphologically and genetically distinct lineages of uncertain taxonomic status. To address this issue, we used a museomic approach to sequence 80 complete mitogenomes and capture 997 nuclear loci for 71 Dasypus individuals sampled across the entire distribution. Our results unambiguously support four distinct lineages within the D. novemcinctus complex. We found cases of mito-nuclear phylogenetic discordance but only limited contemporary gene flow confined to the margins of the lineage distributions. All available evidence including the restricted gene flow, phylogenetic reconstructions based on both mitogenomes and nuclear loci, and phylogenetic delimitation methods consistently supported the four lineages within D. novemcinctus as four distinct species. Considering congruent morphological results from previous studies, we provide an integrative taxonomic view to recognize four species within the D. novemcinctus complex: D. novemcinctus, D. fenestratus, D. mexicanus, and D. guianensis sp. nov., a new species endemic of the Guiana Shield that we describe here. The present work offers a case study illustrating the power of museomics to reveal cryptic species diversity within a widely distributed and emblematic species of mammals.
This paper from the ERC ConvergeAnt project was also supported by a PhD grant from the Centre d’étude de la biodiversité amazonienne (Labex CEBA).
Citations:
Barthe M., Rancilhac L., Arteaga M.C., Feijó A., Tilak M.-K., Justy F., Loughry W.J., McDonough C.M., de Thoisy B., Catzeflis F., Billet G., Hautier L., Nabholz B. & Delsuc F. (2025). Exon capture museomics deciphers the nine-banded armadillo species complex and identifies a new species endemic to the Guiana Shield. Systematic Biology 74: 177-197. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syae027
Barthe M., Hautier L., Billet G., Feijó A., Moison B., de Thoisy B., Catzeflis F. & Delsuc F. (2024). 3D models related to the publication: Exon capture museomics deciphers the nine-banded armadillo species complex and identifies a new species endemic to the Guiana Shield. MorphoMuseuM 10: e204. doi:10.18563/journal.m3.204
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