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Summary: Mammalian Biology
Zeitschrift fuÈr SaÈugetierkunde
www.elsevier-deutschland.de/mammbiol
Original investigation
Integrated systematic reevaluation of the Amazonian
genus Scolomys (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae)
By MARCELA GOÂMEZ-LAVERDE, ROBERT P. ANDERSON, and LUIS F. GARCIÂA
FundacioÂn UlamaÂ, BogotaÂ, Colombia, and Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogo-
taÂ, Colombia; American Museum of Natural History, New York, U.S.A.; Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of
California, Berkeley, U.S.A., and Departamento de BiologõÂa, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, BogotaÂ, Colombia
Receipt of Ms. 19. 09. 2002
Acceptance of Ms. 13. 02. 2003
Abstract
Qualitative, mensural, genetic, and phylogenetic analyses were conducted to clarify species limits,
distributions, and relationships in the poorly known Amazonian rodent genus Scolomys. Scolomys me-
lanops is characterized by consistent differences in comparison with all other samples of the genus.
However, our data do not support the recognition of S. juruaense as a valid species, but rather as a sy-
nonym of S. ucayalensis. Only minimal differences in Cyt-b sequences were present between S. ju-
ruaense and S. ucayalensis, and phylogenetic analyses consistently retrieved a monophyletic genus
Scolomys with the relationship ((S. juruaense + S. ucayalensis) + S. melanops). The apparent morpho-
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