New records of Chironectes minimus (Zimmermann, 1870) (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) from central Brazil, with comments on its distribution pattern
2014
Brandão, Marcus Vinicius | Garbino, Guilherme Siniciato Terra | Godoy, Leandro Perez | da Silva, Leandro Alves | Pascoal, Wanieulli
Chironectes minimus is a marsupial with unique morphological and ecological characteristics. Owing mainly to its semi-aquatic habits, it is rarely collected by conventional methods, being consequently underrepresented in scientific collections. Its distribution in South America is currently considered disjunct, with a north-west and a south-east portion, and a large gap of more than one thousand kilometers that comprises central Amazonia and a large portion of the Cerrado. On the basis of four museum specimens and two photographed live animals, we present six new records for the species. These records extend the species’ distribution, showing that its range is continuous from southern Amazonia and through Cerrado gallery forests, to the southern portion of its range in southeastern South America. Most known records of C. minimus are from preserved riparian forests that usually present certain characteristics, such as fast-flowing water, stony substrate, and/or natural holes used as dens. Therefore, we hypothesize that the occurrence of this species is more closely related to well-preserved riparian forests containing these types of habitats than to the biomes themselves. Consequently, this species is probably found through most tropical and subtropical South American biomes that present the aforementioned habitat types. Therefore, the previous distributional gap of the species, now filled on its central-east portion, was probably a sampling artifact.
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