Browsing by Author "Denys, Christiane"

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    Cranial morphometric and fine scale genetic variability of two adjacent mastomys natalensis (rodentia: muridae) populations
    (Hal, 2009-10-26) Lalis, Aude; Baylac, Michel; Cosson, Jean François; Makundi, Rhodes H; Machang’U, Robert S.; Denys, Christiane
    The ob jec tive of this multidisciplinary pro ject was to study the intra-spe cific morphometric and ge netic vari abil ity be tween two ad ja cent pop u la tions of Mastomys natalensis Smith, 1834 liv ing in dif fer ent en vi ron ments. The study of mi cro-evo lu tion ary pro cesses at work by us ing geo met ri cal morphometrics al lowed us to de fine two groups, char ac ter ized by dif fer ent fea tures of the skull shape. Us ing mo lec u lar microsatellites anal y sis, we showed that the two pop u la tions ex changed high gene flow and could be con sid ered as a sin gle panmictic unit. These re sults sug gest that this widely-dis trib uted spe cies ex hib its a lo cal pop u la tion-level dif fer en ti a tion in shape vari a tion of skulls, prob a bly due to dif fer ent eco log i cal sit u a tions. We spec u late that the vari abil ity in the cra nial char ac ter is tics (con nected with the feed ing abil ity) could re veal a lo cal ad ap ta tion pref er en tially based on the food avail abil ity. We pro pose an ex pla na tion link ing the shape dif fer ences to the fit ness gain in the ex ploi ta tion of re sources avail able in the two en vi ron ments. Since we sug gest a po ten tial dif fer en ti a tion pro cess be tween pop u la tions, we be lieve that the two groups con sti tute even better mod els to un der stand the fac tors in volved in the early stages of lo cal ad ap ta tions. The aim of such stud ies is to pro vide a better un der stand ing of the eco nom i cal im por tance of this spe cies and its re mark able ca pa bil ity to pro lif er ate.
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    A faunal survey in Kingu Pira (south Tanzania), with new karyotypes of several small mammals and the description of a new Murid species (Mammalia, Rodentia)
    (ZOOSYSTEMA, 2011) Denys, Christiane; Lalis, Aude; Lecompte, Emilie; Cornette, Raphaël; Moulin, Sibyle; Makundi, Rhodes H.; Volobouev, Vitaly; Machang'u, Robert S.; Aniskine, Vladimir M.
    A multidisciplinary approach combining morphology, classical morphometry and cytogenetics allowed to establish an updated taxonomic inventory of small mammals from Kingu Pira in the Selous region (south Tanzania). Among the 229 rodents and 21 shrews that were captured during the fi eldwork in Ngarembe village in July 2003, 45 specimens were karyotyped. Concerning rodents, this allowed the description of a new karyotype of Acomys and Grammomys, while the cytotypes of Paraxerus fl avovittis and Pelomys fallax are here fi gured for the fi rst time. Taxonomic revisions of the literature allowed to clarify the status of Lemniscomys rosalia and Aethomys chrysophilus in Tanzania. Using a combination of morphological and cytogenetical characters, a new species of Grammomys is described. For shrews, we provide here the fi rst description of C. hirta karyotype. Comparisons with voucher of genetically typed specimens of diff erent east African collections confi rmed the important biodiversity of this region for conservation and the necessity to preserve the coastal forest of south Tanzania.