| Gansu mole | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Eulipotyphla |
| Family: | Talpidae |
| Tribe: | Scalopini |
| Genus: | Scapanulus Thomas, 1912 |
| Species: | S. oweni |
| Binomial name | |
| Scapanulus oweni Thomas, 1912 | |
 | |
| Gansu mole range | |
TheGansu mole (Scapanulus oweni) is a species ofmammal in the familyTalpidaeendemic to centralChina, where it occurs inShaanxi,Gansu,Sichuan, andQinghai. It is theonly species in thegenusScapanulus.[2]
Along with theMedog mole (Alpiscaptulus medogensis), which is also found in the mountains of China, the Gansu mole is the only member of thetribeScalopini to not live inNorth America. Phylogenetic and fossil evidence indicates that the scalopine moles evolved inEurasia and migrated to North America during theNeogene; however, the Gansu and Medog moles are not relict Eurasian scalopine moles, but are descendants of North American scalopine moles that migrated back to Eurasia; thehairy-tailed mole (Parascalops breweri) of North America is more closely related to them than it is to the other two North American scalopine genera.[3][1]
Phylogenetic evidence supports the Gansu and Medog moles being the closest living relatives of one another and diverging the mid-lateMiocene, about 11.59 million years ago. It is thought that the uplift of theTibetan Plateau and the subsequentclimate change isolated the two genera in different habitats, leading to their divergence. The habitats for both species may have served asrefugia during periods ofglaciation, allowing them to persist while most other Eurasian scalopines went extinct.[3]
The morphology of the Gansu mole indicates that it will fall in the Scalopini tribe. All scolopines are distributed in Central America;however, Gansu moles are distributed in the Central and Southwest areas of China. The first specimen ofScapanulus oweni was found by G. Fenwick Owen in 1911 in Gansu, China. The genome of the species is 16,826 bases in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and a displacement loop gene.[4][5]
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