US EPA

1436328 

Journal Article 

On species status of the forest-steppe marmot Marmota kastschenkoi (Rodentia, Marmotinae) 

Brandler, OV 

2003 

1 

Zoologicheskii Zhurnal
ISSN: 0044-5134 

82 

12 

1498-1505 

WOS:000188637300011 

Karyotypes of the subspecies Marmota baibacina baibacina
from Kosh-Agach (the Altai Mountains) and M. b. kastschenkoi from Novosibirsk oblast and Altai
Krai were studied. The M. b. kastschenkoi karyotype has 2n = 36 and NF = 68. It differs from M.
b. baibacina (2n = 38, NF = 70) as a result of the translocation rearrangement (fusion) of
submetacentric and acrocentric of the 38 chromosome karyotype with an elimination of small arm of
the submetacentric. The taxonomic status of the forest-steppe gray marmot should be elevated up
to the species level of M. kastschenkoi on the basis of karyotypic differences. Marmots with 2n =
37 and NF = 68 were found in the Kosh-Agach population. They had a metacentric created by the
fusion of homologues of the chromosomes similar to those of M. kastschenkoi. A suggestion about
repeated mutagenesis of such mutations under the influence of environmental factors (higher
seismic activity, mercury and uranium ore deposits, etc.) is given.