The systematics and evolution of North American moles (Insectivora: Talpidae)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe geographic and nongeographic variation in each species of the faraily Talpidae in North America, to test the hypothesis that genic heterozygosity is low in fossorial mammals, to exaraine the relationships between raorphological, karyological and genic variation, to assess the taxonomic status of the various species of North American talpids with respect to morphological, karyological and genic data, and finally to assess the evolutionary relationships among the different genera of North American moles using morphological, karyological, and genic data.