Taxonomic delimitation and natural history of some mammals from Atlantic Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In a global context, the North American mammal fauna is relatively well-studied. However, because of the high-profile scientific history and achievement of North American mammalogy, there is a perception that taxonomic study of North American mammals has reached its zenith – i.e., some have claimed that we know everything there is to know about North American mammal systematics. For this dissertation, I show that such a perception is unfounded and that questions regarding the taxonomy and natural history of several mammals have yet to be resolved. This dissertation focuses on some of the native terrestrial mammals found in Atlantic Canada. Using various morphometric, statistical analyses, and molecular genetic tools, I addressed the morphology, systematics, and natural history of several species in the region: the long-tailed shrew (Sorex) species complex comprised of rock shrew (S. dispar), Gaspe shrew (S. gaspensis), and smoky shrew (S. fumeus); the taxonomic status of S. gaspensis; the identity of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick; and characterized the external morphology and skulls of bobcat x Canada lynx (Lynx rufus x L. canadensis) hybrids in southern New Brunswick. I demonstrated that the three species of long-tailed shrews can be differentiated craniometrically and that S. f. fumeus is not craniometrically distinctive from S. f. umbrosus. In addition, though the taxonomy of S. gaspensis may be resolved to some, the craniometric data presented here show that S. gaspensis is distinctive from S. dispar and that the former should be considered an evolutionary significant unit with respect to conservation. In studying deer mice on Grand Manan Island, I detected the mitotype of white-footed mouse (P. leucopus), the first record of this austral species for New Brunswick. Finally, I show that bobcat x Canada lynx hybrids are relatively intermediate between their parental species with respect to external and craniodental morphology.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".