The Balkan snow vole (Dinaromys bogdanovi), also known as Martino's snow vole, is the only living member of the genus Dinaromys. The genus name means "Dinaric mouse", referring to the Dinaric Alps, as the species is endemic to the western Balkans of southeast Europe. Eight subspecies of this vole have been recognized, although in 2022 this number was reduced to two subspecies.[2] The Balkan snow vole is a living fossil, the only living species in the tribe Pliomyini, and might arguably better be placed in Pliomys, a genus established for its fossil relatives even before the Balkan snow vole was scientifically described. It was described by husband and wife mammalogists Vladimir Emmanuilovich Martino and Evgeniya Veniaminovna Martino.[3] Others have argued that Pliomys (whose last representative, P. lenki, only became extinct around 12,000 years ago) should be treated as entirely separate from Dinaromys, with Dinaromys and P. lenki estimated to have genetically diverged around 4 million years ago based on ancient DNA sequences.[4] The earliest representatives of Dinaromys like Dinaromys allegranzii date to the Early Pleistocene (around 2.5-2 million years ago), with Dinaromys also inhabiting the Italian Peninsula until the end of the Late Pleistocene, when it contracted to its current distribution.[5]
| Balkan snow vole Temporal range: Early Pleistocene to Recent
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Subfamily: | Arvicolinae |
| Tribe: | Pliomyini |
| Genus: | Dinaromys Kretzoi, 1955 |
| Species: | D. bogdanovi
|
| Binomial name | |
| Dinaromys bogdanovi (V. E. Martino & E. V. Martino, 1922)
| |
| Subspecies | |
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D. b. bogdanovi | |
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| Balkan snow vole range | |
A 2021 study found Dinaromys (and by extension, the rest of Pliomyini) to be the sister group to the tribe Ellobiusini, from which it diverged during the late Miocene; however, this still remains uncertain.[6]
The subspecies D. d. longipedis was recognized as a distinct species by the American Society of Mammalogists as Dinaromys longipedis; it is found in the northwestern part of this species's range.[7]
References
edit- ^ Kryštufek, B. (2018). "Dinaromys bogdanovi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T6607A97220104. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T6607A97220104.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ Kryštufek, Boris; Shenbrot, Georgy I. (July 2022). Voles and Lemmings (Arvicolinae) of the Palaearctic Region. Maribor, Slovenia: University of Maribor Press. ISBN 978-961-286-611-2.
- ^ Kryštufek, Boris; Nedyalkov, Nedko; Astrin, Jonas J.; Hutterer, Rainer (May 2018). "News from the Balkam refugium: Thrace has an endemic mole species (Mammalia: Talpidae)". Bonn Zoological Bulletin. 67 (1): 41–57. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
- ^ Alfaro-Ibáñez, María; Lira-Garrido, Jaime; Cuenca-Bescós, Gloria; Pons, Joan; Bover, Pere (2024). "Insights on the evolution of the tribe Pliomyini (Arvicolinae, Rodentia): Ancient DNA from the extinct Pliomys lenki". Palaeontologia Electronica. 27 (3): 1–20. doi:10.26879/1403.
- ^ Berto, Claudio; Luzi, Elisa; Marchetti, Marco; Pereswiet-Soltan, Andrea; Sala, Benedetto (September 2022). "Faunal renewals during the Early Pleistocene on the northern Italian Peninsula: Climate and environment reconstructions inferred from the Rivoli Veronese small mammal assemblage (Adige River valley, Verona, Italy)". Quaternary International. 633: 134–153. Bibcode:2022QuInt.633..134B. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2021.11.025.
- ^ Abramson, Natalia I.; Bodrov, Semyon Yu; Bondareva, Olga V.; Genelt-Yanovskiy, Evgeny A.; Petrova, Tatyana V. (2021-11-19). "A mitochondrial genome phylogeny of voles and lemmings (Rodentia: Arvicolinae): Evolutionary and taxonomic implications". PLOS ONE. 16 (11): e0248198. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1648198A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248198. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 8604340. PMID 34797834.
- ^ "ASM Mammal Diversity Database".
- "Dinaromys". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 894–1531. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
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