A new species of Alticola (Mammalia, Rodentia, Arvicolinae) from southern Tibet, China
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The complex topography and diverse habitats of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have made it a center of speciation and evolution for various taxa, including small mammals. Our surveys in 2008 and 2023 on the southern part of the plateau discovered a population of mountain voles (genus Alticola ) not assignable to any known species. Specimens were collected from shrublands near streams (at elevations of 3,228–4,022 m) in Longzi and Lang counties, Tibet. Integrative taxonomic analyses, incorporating molecular phylogenetics and morphology, confirmed their distinct status. They form a well-supported clade that is sister to A. stoliczkanus , from which it diverged approximately 0.49 Mya (95% HPD interval: 0.20–0.77). Kimura-2-parameter distances for the complete cytochrome b gene between these individuals and other nominal species of Alticola range from 4.0% to 10.3%. Morphologically, this unique lineage is diagnosed by possessing the simplest M 3 with a truncated posterior lobe, a slender tail, darker pelage, and distinctive bacular characteristics. We describe this lineage as Alticola yarlungia sp. nov. This discovery suggests that species diversity within genus Alticola remains underestimated and underscores the need for continued biodiversity exploration in the eastern Himalayan region.
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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 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 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".