21世纪中国的偶蹄目系统学
Systematics of the Artiodactyla of China in the 21st century
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摘要: 本文介绍了进化种的概念及其对中国偶蹄目分类学的影响。偶蹄目的“传统”分类学创建时种和亚种的概念并不十分完善,除了在20世纪30年代受群体思想影响稍作修改外,过去100年来偶蹄目的分类学几乎未有变化。物种是一些拥有固定的遗传性状差别的群体(或者复合群体),从其他类似的群体(或者复合群体)分化而来。偶蹄目中,有比"传统"认可多得多的物种;这绝不是一个缺点,因为它使生物多样性单元以一种可测试的方式确定下来,并让大型哺乳动物的分类与长期实行的小型哺乳动物的分类接轨。物种有可能在一个属的分布有自然隔阂的地方分化,如山脉阻隔(例如羚牛属Budorcas),或其他生境切割 (例如鹿属Cervus)。不同物种之间的自然杂交并非罕见现象,再以鹿属Cervus为例,根据线粒体DNA的分布,今天发生在马鹿(C. elaphus)和梅花鹿(C. nippon)之间的杂交,显然也发生在过去。Abstract: In this paper, I have introduced the concept of the Evolutionary Species, and shown how it affects the taxonomy of the Artiodactyla of China. The "traditional" taxonomy of the Artiodactyla, which has remained almost unchanged for 100 years, relies on ill-formulated notions of species and subspecies, only slightly modified by the population-thinking of the 1930s. Species are populations (or metapopulations) differentiated by the possession of fixed heritable differences from other such populations (or metapopulations). In the Artiodactyla, there are many more species than "traditionally" recognised; this is by no means a drawback, as it enables the units of biodiversity to be identified in a testable fashion, and brings the taxonomy of large mammals into line with that long practised for small mammals. Species are likely to differentiate where there are natural gaps in the distribution of a genus, such as mountain blocks (for example in the genus Budorcas) or otherwise dissected habitat (for example in the genus Cervus). Natural hybridisation between distinct species is not an uncommon phenomenon, again illustrated well in the genus Cervus, where hybridisation between the elaphus and nippon groups occurs today and evidently occurred in the past, as shown by the distribution of mtDNA.