Heru Handika

• Master of Science
• PhD Candidate at Louisiana State University

We document a new genus and species of shrew rat from the north peninsula of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. The new taxon is known only from the type locality at 1,600 m elevation on Mt. Dako, in the district of Tolitoli. It is distinguished from all other Indonesian murines by its large, flat, pink nose with forward-facing nares. Relative to other Su...

Island systems are important models for evolutionary biology because they provide convenient, discrete biogeographic units of study. Continental islands with a history of intermittent dry land connections confound the discrete definitions of islands and have led zoologists to predict (1) little differentiation of terrestrial organisms among contine...

The Mammal Diversity Database (MDD) is an open-access resource providing up-to-date taxonomic, nomenclatural, and geographic data for global mammal species. Since its launch in 2018, the MDD has transformed the traditionally static process of updating mammalian taxonomy into regular online releases reflecting the latest published research. To build...

Communities that occupy similar environments but vary in the richness of closely related species can illuminate how functional variation and species richness interact to fill ecological space in the absence of abiotic filtering, though this has yet to be explored on an oceanic island where the processes of community assembly may differ from contine...

Phylogenetic studies now routinely require manipulating and summarizing thousands of data files. For most of these tasks, currently available software requires considerable computing resources and substantial knowledge of command‐line applications. We develop an ultrafast and memory‐efficient software, SEGUL, that performs common phylogenomic datas...

We describe 3 new species of shrews (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae, Crocidura) from West Sumatra, Indonesia. Two of these taxa were found above 1,800 m on Mt. Singgalang. The third taxon was found above 1,660 m on Mt. Talamau, 65 km northwest of Mt. Singgalang. We also resurrect Crocidura aequicauda based on 2 specimens from Mts. Tujuh and Kerinci, which...

Faunivorous mammals with simple guts are thought to rely primarily on endogenously produced enzymes to digest food, in part because they lack fermentation chambers for facilitating mutualistic interactions with microbes. However, variation in microbial community composition along the length of the gastrointestinal tract has yet to be assessed in fa...

Communities that occupy similar environments but vary in the richness of closely related species can illuminate how functional variation and species richness interact to fill ecological space in the absence of abiotic filtering, though this has yet to be explored on an oceanic island where the processes of community assembly may differ from contine...

With increasing use of genomic sequencing technology, phylogenetic studies routinely require manipulating and summarizing thousands of alignments. Currently available software for these tasks uses considerable computing resources and are designed for users with substantial knowledge of command line applications. We develop SEGUL, a compiled, single...

After nearly a decade of field inventories in which we preserved voucher specimens of the small terrestrial mammals of Sulawesi, we combined qualitative and quantitative analyses of morphological traits with molecular phylogenetics to better understand the diversity of shrews (Soricidae: Crocidura) on the island. We examined the morphology of 1368...

We present new records of Ichthyophis elongatus Taylor, 1965 in West Sumatra. These records extend the known distribution of the species which was previously only known from the type locality in Padang, West Sumatra. We assess the morphology and habitats of this species and estimate its distribution. Predicted distribution based on maximum entropy...

Sulawesi is the largest, most topographically complex island in the Wallacean biogeographic zone, and it has a rich fauna of endemic small mammals, dominated by rodents of the family Muridae. Among murids, the Bunomys division is the most species‐rich radiation on Sulawesi. In total, the division contains 11 genera and 32 species, five and 20 of wh...

Albinism, a congenital disorder that results in a lack of melanin deposition, is common in domesticated animals but rare in nature. Among the ∼2500 species of rodents worldwide, only 67 have published reports of albinism. Here we report the capture of an albino murid (Muridae: Rodentia) from Mt. Singgalang in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The specimen i...

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a globally significant biodiversity hotspot with substantial undescribed biota, particularly blood-borne parasites of endemic wildlife. Documenting the blood parasites of Sulawesi's murine rodents is the first fundamental step towards the discovery of pathogens likely to be of concern for the health and conserva...

Abstrak Sejak didirikan pada tahun 2004, Museum Zoologi Universitas Andalas (MZUA) telah melakukan fungsinya sebagai sebuah lembaga ilmiah, termasuk menyimpan, memelihara dan mengawetkan beragam bentuk spesimen hewan vertebrata. Teknik pengawetan round-skin mulai digunakan sejak tahun 2012 untuk spesimen dari kelas Aves (burung) membawa kebaharuan...

We describe a new species of Crocidura (Soricidae) from Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, documenting its novelty with both genetic and morphological characters. The new species is widespread on the island, with vouchered records from nine general localities distributed among five of the island's areas of endemism. Morphologically, the new species is rea...

Ringkasan. Catatan ini mengenai publikasi perbiakan kedua Meninting Cegar Enicurus ruficapillus dan berasal dari individu betina yang teramati sedang aktif bersarang pada ketinggian 854 m dpl di jalur pendakian Gunung Talamau, Sumatera Barat. Sarang berada di pinggir sungai kecil.dan berisi dua telur berwarna putih dengan bercak coklat merah muda p...

We describe a new species of shrew (Soricomorpha, Soricidae, Crocidura) from Mt. Gede, West Java, Indonesia. Relative to other Javan shrews, the new species is small with a relatively thick, dark brown, medium-length tail. The new species is known only from the type locality at 1,611 and 1,950 m elevation on Mt. Gede. It occurs syntopically with at...

We conducted a biodiversity assessment in two mountains in Kerinci Seblat National Park from 9 September - 3 October 2014. Our survey revealed 22 species of small mammals, 16 species of birds and 8 species of fishes. We added rare pictures of fresh specimens of Sumatran endemic taxas in this report, particularly some endemic rats and shrews.

The communities of small terrestrial mammals are known to be affected by the forest disturbances. The investigation of small terrestrial mammals' community in had been conducted Mount Singgalang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Small terrestrial mammals were trapped in three different habitats; heavily disturbed, slightly disturbed and undisturbed forest....