TY - JOUR AU - Zhang, Bin AU - He, Kai AU - Wan, Tao AU - Chen, Peng AU - Sun, Guozheng AU - Liu, Shaoying AU - Nguyen, Truong Son AU - Lin, Liangkong AU - Jiang, Xuelong PY - 2016 DA - 2016/12/01 TI - Multi-locus phylogeny using topotype specimens sheds light on the systematics of Niviventer (Rodentia, Muridae) in China JO - BMC Evolutionary Biology SP - 261 VL - 16 IS - 1 AB - Niviventer is a genus of white-bellied rats that are among the most common rodents in the Indo-Sundaic region. The taxonomy of the genus has undergone extensive revisions and remains controversial. The current phylogeny is unresolved and was developed primarily on the basis of mitochondrial genes. Identification is extremely difficult, and a large number of GenBank sequences seem to be problematic. We extensively sampled specimens of Niviventer in China and neighboring northern Vietnam, including topotypes of the most reported species (n = 6), subspecies (n = 8), and synonyms (n = 4). We estimated phylogenetic relationships on the basis of one mitochondrial and three nuclear genes, using concatenation and coalescent-based approaches. We also employed molecular species delimitation approaches to test the existence of cryptic and putative new species. SN - 1471-2148 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0832-8 DO - 10.1186/s12862-016-0832-8 ID - Zhang2016 ER -