Is Colobus guereza gallarum a valid endemic Ethiopian taxon?

ABSTRACT: Black-and-white colobus (Colobus guereza Rüppell, 1835) are arboreal Old World monkeys inhabiting large parts of the deciduous and evergreen forests of sub-Saharan Africa. Two of the eight subspecies of Colobus guereza are endemic to Ethiopia: C. g. gallarum and C. g. guereza. However, the validity of the Ethiopian taxa is debated and observed morphological differences were attributed to clinal variation within C. g. guereza. To date, no molecular phylogeny of the Ethiopian guerezas is available to facilitate their taxonomic classification. We used mitochondrial DNA markers from 94 samples collected across Ethiopia to reconstruct a phylogeny of respective mitochondrial lineages. In our phylogenetic reconstruction, augmented by orthologous sequence information of non-Ethiopian black-and-whi

SUBMITTER: Zinner D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7041534 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature