Neogale

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Neogale
Long tailed weasel on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge (35240138322).jpg
Long-tailed weasel (N. frenata)
American mink (16142491595).jpg
American mink (N. vison)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Mustelinae
Genus: Neogale
Gray, 1865
Type species
Mustela frenata [1]
Species

N. africana
N. felipei
N. frenata
N. vison
N. macrodon

Contents

Synonyms
  • Mustela (in part)
  • Neovison Baryshnikov & Abramov, 1997
  • Grammogale
  • Cabreragale

Neogale is a genus of mustelid native to the Americas, ranging from Alaska south to Bolivia. Members of this genus are known as New World weasels.

Taxonomy

Members of this genus were formerly classified into the genera Mustela and Neovison, but many studies had previously recovered several American species of Mustela, as well as both species within Neovison, to comprise a monophyletic clade distinct from all other members of Mustelinae. [2] [3] A 2021 study found this clade to have diverged from Mustela during the Late Miocene, between 11.8 - 13.4 million years ago, with all members within the clade being more closely related to one another than to any of the other species in Mustela, and gave it the name Neogale, originally coined by John Edward Gray. [1] The American Society of Mammalogists later accepted this change. [4]

New World weasels
Mustelinae
Taxonomy of Neogale [5]

Species

There are 5 recent species in the genus, 4 extant and 1 extinct: [4]

Extant species

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Neogale africana(Desmarest, 1800) Amazon weasel Amazon Basin of South America
Neogale felipei(Izor and de la Torre, 1978) Colombian weasel Andes of Colombia and Ecuador
Bridled weasel.jpg Neogale frenata(Lichtenstein, 1831) Long-tailed weasel Continental North America south of southern Canada; Andes and northern Amazon Basin in South America
American Mink, Centre Island, Toronto, ON (9371348505).jpg Neogale vison(Schreber, 1777) American mink North America (United States and Canada); introduced to Europe, Japan, Chile and Argentina

Extinct species

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Neovison macrodon.png Neogale macrodon(Prentiss, 1903) Sea mink Maritime Provinces in Canada, New England in the United States; now extinct

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnivora</span> Order of mammals

Carnivora is an order of placental mammals that have specialized in primarily eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the fifth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species on every major landmass and in a variety of habitats, ranging from the cold Polar regions of Earth to the hyper-arid region of the Sahara Desert and the open seas. These mammals have a large array of diverse body plans with a wide diversity of shapes and sizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mustelidae</span> Family of mammals

The Mustelidae are a diverse family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, stoats, badgers, otters, martens, grisons, and wolverines. Otherwise known as mustelids, they form the largest family in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora with about 66 to 70 species in nine subfamilies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weasel</span> Mammal of the mustelid family

Weasels are mammals of the genus Mustela of the family Mustelidae. The genus Mustela includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets, and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender bodies and short legs. The family Mustelidae, or mustelids, is often referred to as the "weasel family". In the UK, the term "weasel" usually refers to the smallest species, the least weasel (M. nivalis), the smallest carnivoran species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mephitidae</span> Family of mammals

Mephitidae is a family of mammals comprising the skunks and stink badgers. They are noted for the great development of their anal scent glands, which they use to deter predators. Skunks were formerly classified as a subfamily of the Mustelidae ; however, in the 1990s, genetic evidence caused skunks to be treated as a separate family. Similarly, the stink badgers had been classified with badgers, but genetic evidence shows they share a more recent common ancestor with skunks, so they are now included in the skunk family. A 2017 study using retroposon markers indicated that they are most closely related to the Ailuridae and Procyonidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-tailed weasel</span> Species of weasel native to the Americas

The long-tailed weasel, also known as the bridled weasel, masked ermine, or big stoat, is a species of mustelid native to the Neotropics. It is distinct from the short-tailed weasel, also known as a "stoat", a close relation in the genus Mustela that originated in Eurasia and crossed into North America some half million years ago; the two species are visually similar, especially the black tail tip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marten</span> Genus of mammals

A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus Martes within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on the species; it is valued by animal trappers for the fur trade. Martens are slender, agile animals, which are adapted to living in the taiga, and inhabit coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the Northern Hemisphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caniformia</span> Suborder of mammals

Caniformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "dog-like" carnivorans. They include dogs, bears, raccoons, and mustelids. The Pinnipedia are also assigned to this group. The center of diversification for the Caniformia is North America and northern Eurasia. Caniformia stands in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, the Feliformia, the center of diversification of which was in Africa and southern Asia.

<i>Meles</i> (genus) Genus of carnivores

Meles is a genus of badgers containing four living species known as Eurasian badgers, the Japanese badger, Asian badger, Caucasian badger and European badger. In an older categorization, they were seen as a single species with three subspecies. There are also several extinct members of the genus. They are members of the subfamily Melinae of the weasel family, Mustelidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea mink</span> Extinct species of mustelid mammal from eastern North America

The sea mink is a recently extinct species of mink that lived on the eastern coast of North America around the Gulf of Maine on the New England seaboard. It was most closely related to the American mink, with continuing debate about whether or not the sea mink should be considered a subspecies of the American mink or a species of its own. The main justification for a separate species designation is the size difference between the two minks, but other distinctions have been made, such as its redder fur. The only known remains are bone fragments unearthed in Native American shell middens. Its actual size is speculative, based largely on tooth remains.

<i>Lutra</i> Genus of carnivores

Lutra is a genus of otters, one of seven in the subfamily Lutrinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon weasel</span> Species of carnivore

The Amazon weasel, also known as the tropical weasel, is a species of weasel native to South America. It was first identified from a museum specimen mislabelled as coming from Africa, hence the scientific name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mustelinae</span> Subfamily of carnivores

Mustelinae is a subfamily of family Mustelidae, including weasels, ferrets, and minks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferret-badger</span> Genus of carnivores

Ferret-badgers are the six species of the genus Melogale, which is the only genus of the monotypic mustelid subfamily Helictidinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guloninae</span> Subfamily of carnivores

Guloninae is a subfamily of the mammal family Mustelidae distributed across Eurasia and the Americas. It includes martens and the fisher, tayra and wolverine. These genera were formerly included within a paraphyletic definition of the mustelid subfamily Mustelinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colombian weasel</span> Species of carnivore

The Colombian weasel, also known as Don Felipe's weasel, is a very rare species of weasel only known with certainty from the departments of Huila and Cauca in Colombia and nearby northern Ecuador. Both its scientific and alternative common name honours the mammalogist Philip "Don Felipe" Hershkovitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stink badger</span> Genus of carnivores

Stink badgers or false badgers are the species of the genus Mydaus of the skunk family of carnivorans, the Mephitidae. They resemble the better-known members of the family Mustelidae also termed 'badgers'. There are only two extant species – the Palawan stink badger or pantot, and the Sunda stink badger or teledu. They live west of the Wallace Line; the Sunda species on islands of the Greater Sunda Islands, being Sumatra, Java, and Borneo; in Borneo the badger is found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Palawan species lives in the Philippine island of Palawan as well as the islands surrounding it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctoidea</span> Infraorder of mammals

Arctoidea is a clade of mostly carnivorous mammals which include the extinct Hemicyonidae (dog-bears), and the extant Musteloidea, Pinnipedia, and Ursidae (bears), found in all continents from the Eocene, 46 million years ago, to the present. The oldest group of the clade is the bears, as their CMAH gene is still intact. The gene became non-functional in the common ancestor of the Mustelida. Arctoids are caniforms, along with dogs (canids) and extinct bear dogs (Amphicyonidae). The earliest caniforms were superficially similar to martens, which are tree-dwelling mustelids. Together with feliforms, caniforms compose the order Carnivora; sometimes Arctoidea can be considered a separate suborder from Caniformia and a sister taxon to Feliformia.

<i>Pekania</i> Genus of mammal

Pekania is a genus of mustelid that contains a single living species, the fisher (Pekania pennanti). Formerly placed in the genus Martes, it was determined to be distinct enough to be placed within its own genus. A 2013 study also identified several fossil species formerly in Martes that are more closely related – and probably ancestral – to the fisher, moving them into Pekania as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ictonychinae</span> Subfamily of carnivores

Ictonychinae is a subfamily of the mammal family Mustelidae found mainly in the Neotropics and Africa, with one Eurasian member. It includes the grisons, Patagonian weasel, striped polecats, African striped weasel, and marbled polecat. These genera were formerly included within a paraphyletic definition of the mustelid subfamily Mustelinae.

References

  1. 1 2 Patterson, Bruce D.; Ramírez-Chaves, Héctor E.; Vilela, Júlio F.; Soares, André E. R.; Grewe, Felix (2021). "On the nomenclature of the American clade of weasels (Carnivora: Mustelidae)". Journal of Animal Diversity. 3 (2): 1–8. doi: 10.52547/JAD.2021.3.2.1 . ISSN   2676-685X. S2CID   236299740.
  2. Koepfli, Klaus-Peter; Deere, K.A.; Slater, G.J.; Begg, C.; Begg, K.; Grassman, L.; Lucherini, M.; Veron, G.; Wayne, R.K. (February 2008). "Multigene phylogeny of the Mustelidae: Resolving relationships, tempo and biogeographic history of a mammalian adaptive radiation". BMC Biology. 6: 10. doi: 10.1186/1741-7007-6-10 . PMC   2276185 . PMID   18275614.
  3. Law, C. J.; Slater, G. J.; Mehta, R. S. (2018-01-01). "Lineage Diversity and Size Disparity in Musteloidea: Testing Patterns of Adaptive Radiation Using Molecular and Fossil-Based Methods". Systematic Biology. 67 (1): 127–144. doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syx047 . PMID   28472434.
  4. 1 2 "Neogale". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. American Society of Mammalogists . Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  5. Nyakatura, K.; Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P. (2012). "Updating the evolutionary history of Carnivora (Mammalia): a new species-level supertree complete with divergence time estimates". BMC Biology. 10 (#12): 12. doi: 10.1186/1741-7007-10-12 . PMC   3307490 . PMID   22369503.