Discovery of A New Mammal Species (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) From Narcondam Volcanic Island, India

Abstract The present study discovered the existence of a new Crocidura species of shrew (Soricidae: Eulipotyphla) from Narcondam Island, India by using both morphological and molecular approaches. The new species, Crocidura narcondamica sp. nov. is medium-sized and has a distinct external morphology (darker-grey dense fur with a thick and darker tail) and craniodental (braincase is rounded and elevated with weak lambdoidal ridges) characters in comparison with other close congeners. This description illuminates the first discovery of soricid fauna (shrew) from this volcanic island and a total of 12 Crocidura species catalogued in the Indian checklist of mammals. The newly discovered species maintained sufficient genetic distances (12% to 16.6%) with other Crocidura species known from the Indian mainland, Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago, and Myanmar. Both Maximum-Likelihood and Bayesian phylogeny showed distinct clustering of all soricid species and exhibited congruence with the previous evolutionary hypothesis. The present phylogenetic analyses also furnished the oldest evolutionary lineages of this newly discovered species in comparison with other congeners, which assumed to be possible colonization of this species due to immature radiation in Narcondam Island.