Taxonomic revision of the long-tailed shrew, Sorex dispar Batchelder, 1911, from the Appalachian Region of North America, with the description of a new subspecies

• Published in: Journal of Mammalogy
• Main Author: Victor E. Diersing
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: American Society of Mammalogists 2019
• Subjects: Breton Island; Canso; Goodwin
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz127

The long-tailed shrew, Sorex dispar Batchelder, 1911, and Gaspe shrew, S. gaspensisAnthony and Goodwin, 1924, from the Appalachian Mountains of North America have been characterized as genetically highly similar, and that one is morphologically a clinal variate of the other, i.e., there is a single species. I measured 24 characters of the skull on 196 shrews from throughout the range of the species. Geographic variation in skull shape and size was not gradual or continuous, but abrupt. These abrupt changes in morphology are associated with major water barriers, primarily the Connecticut River, middle Saint John River, and the Strait of Canso, which separates mainland Nova Scotia from Cape Breton Island. The morphological analyses presented here and previous genetic studies indicate that S. dispar and S. gaspensis are likely conspecific. Shrews with the largest skull occur from North Carolina north to Vermont and are referable to S. d. dispar with S. d. blitchi as a synonym. Shrews from New Hampshire northeast to southern New Brunswick and mainland Nova Scotia have a medium-sized skull and are referable to a new subspecies. Those from northern New Brunswick, Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, and Cape Breton Island have a small skull and are referable to S. d. gaspensis. The skull morphology of S. d. gaspensis and the new subspecies are more similar to each other than to S. d. dispar. Results of this study differ from those of previous morphological studies because measurement error and within-group variation were reduced, which allowed for visibility of otherwise “hidden” between-group differences, or geographic variation.