RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Discovery of the world’s highest-dwelling mammal
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.03.13.989822
DO 10.1101/2020.03.13.989822
A1 Jay F. Storz
A1 Marcial Quiroga-Carmona
A1 Juan C. Opazo
A1 Thomas Bowen
A1 Matthew Farson
A1 Scott J. Steppan
A1 Guillermo D’Elía
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/14/2020.03.13.989822.abstract
AB Environmental limits of animal life are invariably revised upwards when the animals themselves are investigated in their natural habitats. Here we report results of a scientific mountaineering expedition to survey the high-altitude rodent fauna of Volcán Llullaillaco in the Puna de Atacama of northern Chile, an effort motivated by video documentation of mice (genus Phyllotis) at a record altitude of 6205 m. Among numerous trapping records at altitudes >5000 m, we captured a specimen of the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) on the very summit of Llullaillaco at 6739 m. This summit specimen represents an altitudinal world record for mammals, far surpassing all specimen-based records from the Himalayas and elsewhere in the Andes. This discovery suggests that we may have generally underestimated the altitudinal range limits and physiological tolerances of small mammals simply because the world’s highest summits remain relatively unexplored by biologists.