Don Wilson

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor Emeritus at Smithsonian Institution

Myotis attenboroughi was recently described based on specimens from Tobago Island and considered an endemic species until now. Based on morphological and molecular data, we extended its occurrence to Grenada and Suriname. The presence of M. attenbor-oughi in Grenada, Tobago and mainland South America can be explained by the intermittent connections...

Myotis is a diverse genus of vesper bats with a global distribution. Currently, over 35 Neotropical species are recognized, but molecular studies suggest the existence of a large number of distinct evolutionary lineages, revealing cryptic diversity. Thus, this genus poses a challenge for systematists since its high species diversity is not reflecte...

Accurate estimates of species diversity are essential for all biodiversity research. Delimiting species and understanding the underlying processes of speciation are also central components of systematic biology that frame our comprehension of the evolutionary mechanisms generating biodiversity. The South American tree squirrels (genus Guerlinguetus...

Accurate estimates of species diversity are essential for all biodiversity research. Delimiting species and understanding the underlaying processes of speciation are also central components of systematic biology that outline our comprehension of the evolutionary mechanisms generating biodiversity. We obtained genomic data (Ultraconserved Elements a...

Myotis nigricans was previously considered the most widely distributed Neotropical Myotis species, occurring from Mexico to northern Argentina, and several allopatric subspecies have been recognized, including M. n. extremus, from Mexico and Guatemala. However, recent studies have shown that M. nigricans is a species complex—many cryptic. Using mol...

Myotis riparius is an insectivorous bat species widely distributed in the Neotropics with evident geographical variation in morphological traits. We conducted an integrative study using mitochondrial DNA, qualitative and quantitative morphology, and current and past species distribution models to investigate the variation, population structure, and...

Eptesicus Rafinesque, 1820 is widely distributed in the Old and New World (26 species), and Histiotus Gervais, 1856 is a South American endemic (11 species). Molecular phylogenies have recovered Eptesicus (sensu lato) as polyphyletic, with New World Eptesicus and the sister genus Histiotus in a paraphyletic American clade sister to Old World Eptesi...

Corrigendum to: Lizbeth Fabiola Bautista Alcantara, Don E. Wilson and Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco. 2022. Annotations on the taxonomy of the opossums (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) of Honduras. Mammalia, vol. 86, no. 6, pp. 641–643, https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2022-0027.

Myotis is the most speciose genus of mammals in the world and recent taxonomic revisions have revealed an impressive diversity of species in South America. Even so, the phenotypic conservatism of some taxa makes taxonomic delimitation difficult. We perform a taxonomic review of Myotis from Argentina based on qualitative and quantitative morphologic...

Myotis is the most diverse genus of bats in the world, with more than 30 species recognized in the Neotropics. However, many of these species represent cryptic complexes and are evidence of the existence of hidden diversity in several regions. Using an integrative approach based on molecular, morphological, and bioacoustic data, we performed a syst...

Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs) have been useful to resolve challenging phylogenies of non-model clades, unpuzzling long-conflicted relationships in key branches of the Tree of Life at both deep and shallow levels. UCEs are often reliably recovered from historical samples, unlocking a vast number of preserved natural history specimens for analysis....

Myotis comprises a diverse group of vespertilionid bats with worldwide distribution. Neotropical Myotis have an accentuated phenotypic conservatism, which makes species delimitation and identification difficult , hindering our understanding of the diversity, distribution, and phylogenetic relationships of taxa. To encourage new systematic reviews o...

Information about opossums in Honduras has been scarce. Although there have been sporadic records of species, it was not clear which and how many species were occurring in the country because of taxonomic discussions and the group being understudied. Over the years, different authors studying mammals in Honduras have accepted or rejected the occurr...

Myotis atacamensis (Lataste, 1892) was described based on three syntypes from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The type series is lost. The original description was based on few external and cranial characters, and the diagnosis became obsolete and useless considering the current diversity of South American Myotis. Based on 12 specimens of M. atacamens...

Aim: Comprehensive, global information on species' occurrences is an essential biodiversity variable and central to a range of applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography and conservation. Expert range maps often represent a species' only available distributional information and play an increasing role in conservation assessments and macroeco...

The genus Myotis comprises a diverse group of vespertilionid bats with worldwide distribution. Twenty-eight Neotropical species are currently recognized. In this study, we evaluate molecular and morphological variation in the M. keaysi complex, a high elevation clade of Neotropical myotine bats characterized by complex taxonomy and high morphologic...

The genus Myotis comprises a diverse group of vesper bats with worldwide distribution. Twenty-eight neotropical species are currently recognized. Based on a morphological approach, we describe a new species of Myotis from the Uruguayan Pampas grasslands, an ecoregion under high anthropogenic pressure with a largely unknown bat fauna. Qualitative an...

Bat records from Honduras reported herein are based on 11,163 individuals representing 113 species and eight families, recorded from 1860 to 2020. The Global Biodiversity Informa-tion Facility (GBIF) and published records were used to document the history of bat collecting in Honduras, and the number of species expected for the country and their re...

Myotis nesopolus currently comprises two subspecies. The nominate subspecies (M. n. nesopolus) occurs on the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, whereas M. n. larensis is known from mainland South America in northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. Our Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome-b gen...

Tree squirrels (Sciurinae, Sciurini) represent a diverse radiation that successfully colonized Europe, Asia and the Americas during the Miocene-Pliocene, but information on their evolutionary history remains unclear. In the Neotropics, they have been shown to exhibit the highest rate of diversification amongst all arboreal squirrels, with strikingl...

Background: Tree squirrels (Sciuridae, Sciurini), in particular the highly diverse Neotropical lineages, are amongst the most rapidly diversifying branches of the mammal tree of life but also some of the least known. Negligence of this group by systematists is likely a product of the difficulties in assessing morphological informative traits and of...

Background: Tree squirrels (Sciuridae, Sciurini), in particular the highly diverse Neotropical lineages, are amongst the most rapidly diversifying branches of the mammal tree of life but also some of the least known. Negligence of this group by systematists is likely a product of the difficulties in assessing morphological informative traits and of...

Eight species of Myotis are known to occur west of the Andes, of which four are from western Peru. Based on four vouchers from the arid coast of northern and central Peru, a new species is added to this list. Myotis bakeri species novum externally resembles M. atacamensis but it can be distinguished from this species and all other South American co...

Adopting the name Canis dingo for the Dingo to explicitly denote a species-level taxon separate from other canids was suggested by Crowther et al. (2014) as a means to eliminate taxonomic instability and contention. However, Jackson et al. (2017), using standard taxonomic and nomenclatural approaches and principles, called instead for continued use...

Myotis aelleni Baud, 1979 was described based on a large series from Chubut, Argentina, and is known only from the type locality and Río Negro, also in Argentina. According to the original description, M. aelleni is closest morphologically to M. chiloensis (Waterhouse, 1840), but can be distinguished based on the tricolored dorsal hairs and skull s...

Using 26 cranial measurements, we conducted a morphometric study on 113 adult skulls of the currently recognized rabbits Sylvilagus brasiliensis and S. sanctaemartae from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Five morphological groups are identified of which 4 warrant species-level recognition. North and west of the Andes, S. gabbi occupies the lowlands of...

We describe a new species of Myotis (Vespertilionidae, Myotinae) from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Tobago Island. The new species (Myotis attenboroughi sp. nov.) can be distinguished from all other Neotropical congeners by cranial features and cytochrome-b gene sequences. Myotis attenboroughi sp. nov. is allied morphologically with species...

We describe a new species of bat in the genus Myotis (Vespertilionidae: Myotinae) from the district of Sipaliwini, Suriname. The new species (Myotis clydejonesi sp. nov.), known from a single specimen, is sister to a clade of M. nigricans (Schinz) from southern South America, but differs from all Neotropical species of Myotis in qualitative and qua...

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009;...

This plot is not part of the published stance but derives from it. The plot shows the number of authors by geographic region (courtesy of Dr. Diego Astua).

Macrotus waterhousii is a phyllostomid bat whose diet is poorly known, particularly in semiarid and temperate central Mexico. In this work additional information is reported from food remains discarded by this bat, including taxonomic composition, frequencies and size range of consumed insects; the assessment of a prediction on prey hardness of foo...

Background: Myotis midastactus Moratelli and Wilson, 2014 (Vespertilionidae, Myotinae) was described from the Myotis simus Thomas, 1901 complex based on collections from the Bolivian Savannah. New information: Four vouchers previously assigned to M. simus from the Alto Chaco in Paraguay (West of the Paraguay River) are reassigned here to M. mida...

Material examined

Felis margarita Loche, 1858 is a felid commonly called the sand cat. It is 1 of 6 species in the genus Felis. One of the smallest of the wild cats, Felis margarita, is adapted behaviorally and morphologically to live in desert environments. Prey includes rodents, birds, reptiles, and arthropods. This species has a wide, but disjunct distribution th...

Myotis diminutus Moratelli & Wilson, 2011a (Vespertilionidae, Myotinae) was known only from the holotype—a subadult collected in a fragment of moist forest on the western slope of the Ecuadorian Andes in 1979. Based on recent work in museum collections, we discovered a second specimen of Myotis diminutus, collected in 1959. This specimen of Myotis...

We describe Myotis midastactus sp. nov. from the Bolivian savanna on the basis of differences in fur color, and cranial and external features that unquestionably distinguish it from all other Neotropical Myotis. This new species is morphologically allied to M. simus Thomas, 1901 and other species in the M. ruber group. Myotis midastactus is endemic...

We describe a new species of bat in the genus Myotis (Vespertilionidae, Myotinae) from the coastal mountains of Venezuela. The new species (Myotis handleyi, sp. nov.) can be distinguished from other South American congeners by the following set of traits: dorsal fur long, silky, and bicolored with burnished tips; skull long; rostrum long and broad;...

We present the first comprehensive taxonomic revision and review the biology of the olingos, the endemic Neotropical procyonid genus Bassaricyon, based on most specimens available in museums, and with data derived from anatomy, morphometrics, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, field observations, and geographic range modeling. Species of Bassaricyon ar...

LaVal's myotis (Myotis lavali) was recently described from the M. nigricans complex based on specimens from the Caatinga of northeastern Brazil. We present new distributional records for the Alto Chaco in Paraguay and for the Atlantic Forest of Brazil and Paraguay. These new records extend the distribution of the species approximately 2,000 km sout...

Specimens examined. (DOCX)

Additional specimens sequenced but not used in final genetic analyses. (DOCX)

Background Cryptic morphological variation in the Chiropteran genus Myotis limits the understanding of species boundaries and species richness within the genus. Several authors have suggested that it is likely there are unrecognized species-level lineages of Myotis in the Neotropics. This study provides an assessment of the diversity in New World M...

For the kingdom Animalia, 1,552,319 species have been described in 40 phyla in a new evolutionary classification. Among these, the phylum Arthropoda alone represents 1,242,040 species, or about 80% of the total. The most successful group, the Insecta (1,020,007 species), accounts for about 66% of all animals. The most successful insect order, Coleo...

A new species of bat in the genus Myotis (Vespertilionidae, Myotinae) is described from the Chocó ecoregion on the western slope of the Andes in northwestern Ecuador. The genus Myotis comprises a diverse group of small to large-sized vespertilionid bats distributed worldwide. Twelve South American species are recognized currently, 6 of which occur...

Robert Shaw Hoffmann—“Bob” to vice presidents of the United States, university presidents, international scholars, and his students—passed away on 6 April 2010 at the age of 81. When asked what the “S.” stood for, Bob always responded “ Spermophilus ” never taking himself too seriously despite being a highly regarded international scholar, a well-r...

Currently twelve species of Myotis Kaup, 1829 (Vespertilionidae: Myotinae) are recognized from South America, with several other named taxa regarded as synonyms, among them Myotis punensis J.A. Allen, 1914. This name was first regarded as a junior synonym of Myotis albescens (É. Geoffroy, 1806) and subsequently of Myotis nigricans (Schinz, 1821). T...

Myotis nigricans is a small vespertilionid bat limited in distribution to the neotropical zone. These bats are locally abundant in the Panama Canal Zone, and commonly roost in buildings such as the laboratory on Barro Colorado Island where this study was carried out. Homing experiments showed this species to be capable of returning to the roost fro...

Microtus miurus Osgood, 1901, is a cricetid commonly called the singing vole. An average-sized, short-tailed vole, it is 1 of 62 species in the genus Microtus. It occurs in northwestern Canada and Alaska, where it inhabits well-drained tundra and extends into subalpine and alpine regions. It is unique among arvicolines in that it not only hoards un...

Anoura caudifer (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1818) is a phyllostomid commonly called the tailed tailless bat. This is a relatively small species with an elongated muzzle, a long and protractile tongue, and generally dark brown pelage; it is 1 of 8 species in the genus Anoura. It occurs in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, Brazil,...

The best-selling field guide that "sets new standards" (New Scientist) and "makes all other field guides for mammals of the United States... and Canada obsolete" (Journal of Mammalogy) is now even better. Covering 20 species recognized since 2002 and including 13 new color plates, this fully revised edition of Mammals of North America illustrates a...

Two new species of flying foxes (genus Pteropus) from the Samoan archipelago are described on the basis of modern museum specimens collected in the mid-19th century. A medium-sized species (P. allenorum, n. sp.) is introduced from the island of Upolu (Independent Samoa), based on a specimen collected in 1856 and deposited in the Academy of Natural...

Urocitellus canus (Merriam, 1898) is a sciurid commonly called Merriam's ground squirrel. A nondescript, thintailed, unmarked ground squirrel, it is 1 of 12 species in the genus Urocitellus. It occurs in eastern Oregon and small parts of neighboring Idaho, Nevada, and California. It prefers grasslands and pastures with big sagebrush and western jun...

The substantial body of research on Holarctic ground squirrels amassed over the past century documents considerable variability in morphological, cytogenetic, ecological, and behavioral attributes in the genus Spermophilus F. Cuvier, 1825. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that the traditionally recognized genera Marmota Blumenbach, 177...

M. Wainwright . 2007. The Mammals of Costa Rica: A Natural History and Field Guide. Zona Tropical, Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, and London, United Kingdom, 454 pp. ISBN 978-0-8014-7375-3, price (paper), $29.95. Originally published in Costa Rica in 2002 by Zona Tropical as The Natural History of Costa...

Chiroderma doriae O. Thomas, 1891 is a phyllostomid commonly called the Brazilian big-eyed bat. A brown bat with striking facial and dorsal stripes, it is the 2nd largest of the 5 species in the genus Chiroderma. It is endemic to southeastern Brazil with a single record from bordering Paraguay. C. doriae occurs in Atlantic Rain Forest, as well as i...

Raccoons occur on a number of islands in the Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. Zooarcheological studies have long suggested that these animals are not native to the West Indies. Originally, Caribbean populations were described as endemic insular species Procyon maynardi (Bahamas), P. minor (Guadeloupe), and P. gloveralleni (Barbad...

RESUMEN: Basados en el estudio de ejemplares depositados en museos y colectas de campo recientes, se documenta la presencia de 19 especies de murciélagos (Mammalia: Chiroptera) para el estado de Nayarit, en el centro occidente de México. Las especies registradas pertenecen a las familias Phyllostomidae (3), Vespertilionidae (11) y Molossidae (5), d...

Contrary to common perception, the number of living mammal species and the relationship of those species with one another are incompletely understood. Taxonomic revisions within mammals are frequent and are often motivated by the discovery of new species. In fact, an analysis of patterns of discovery suggests that complete alpha-taxonomic character...

VARIACION GEOGRAFICA EN PHILANDER (DIDELPHIOMORPHIA; DIDELPHIDAE): UN ENFOQUE MORFOMETRICO. Martinez Lanfranco J.A.1 , Helgen K. M.2 & Wilson D.E.2 1 Sección Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay (jacoloml@gmail.com); 2 Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Wa...

This paper present species records and inferable habitat preferences of a total of 35 bat species in 25 genera that were captured during three separate studies on the Potato Plateau, western Guyana. One, Carollia castanea, is a new country record. Reproductive data is presented for seven species. Measurements and habitat data given for Platyrrhinus...

Raccoons Procyon spp. from New Providence Island in the Bahamas and from Barbados and Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles have traditionally been recognized as distinctive species endemic to their respective islands. All three of these ‘species’ currently possess official conservation status of high concern. Bahamian and Guadeloupean raccoons are rec...