A taxonomic and phylogenetic study of the genus Rhizomys (Rodentia: Spalacidae) in China
Received date: 2025-07-16
Accepted date: 2025-12-30
Online published: 2026-06-04
Species of the family Spalacidae are exclusively subterranean, possessing a suite of phenotypic traits adapted to life in underground burrows, making them an important group for studying adaptive evolution. The genus Rhizomys represents a basal lineage within this family. While recent years have witnessed significant progress in molecular sequencing and adaptive evolution research on this genus, morphological comparisons and phylogenetic relationships among its constituent species and subspecies remain poorly understood due to limited availability of newly acquired specimens, and diagnostic characters still need to be clearly defined. Based on newly collected specimens and museum collections from China, we performed a systematic taxonomic study using morphological and molecular phylogenetic approaches. Our results demonstrate that Rhizomys pruinosus, R. sinensis, and R. sumatrensis can be distinguished by their long dorsal guard hairs with white tips, cheek coloration, and the ratio of tail length to head-body length (mean values: 42.3%, 27.9%, and 34.5%, respectively). The subspecies R. sinensis vestitus is significantly larger than R. s. davidi；it has a greatest skull length exceeding 70 mm, longer pinkish-brown tips on the dorsal fur, and greyish-white cheeks. In contrast, R. s. davidi has a greatest skull length less than 70 mm, greyish-brown dorsal fur with noticeably shorter brown tips. Rhizomys pruinosus senex can be distinguished from R. p. latouchei by its robust teeth and sparser dorsal long guard hairs with a shorter white tip section. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on the cytochrome b gene revealed a closer relationship between R. pruinosus and R. sumatrensis, with R. sinensis representing an early-diverging lineage within the genus. Interspecific genetic distances ranged from 9.3% to 15.9%. At the intraspecific level, the genetic distance was 2.3% between the subspecies R. s. vestitus and R. s. davidi, and 0.4% between R. p. senex and R. p. latouchei, indicating varying degrees of differentiation among subspecies. This study provides foundational data for the systematics of the genus Rhizomys; However, a definitive taxonomic assessment of R. wardi still awaits more comprehensive sampling.
Key words： Rhizomyinae; Morphology; Phylogeny; Cyt b; Subspecies; Taxonomic key
Mingkun TANG , Xuming WANG , Yingxun LIU , Rui LIAO , Buqing PENG , Xin WANG , Shaoying LIU . A taxonomic and phylogenetic study of the genus Rhizomys (Rodentia: Spalacidae) in China[J]. ACTA THERIOLOGICA SINICA, 2026 , 46(3) : 307 -319 . DOI: 10.16829/j.slxb.151126
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