中國是世界上鼴科（Talpidae）哺乳動物物種資源最豐富的國家，尤其是中國西南複雜的地形地貌孕育了極高的物種多樣性，然而我們對該類群的了解仍十分有限。在蔣學龍研究員的帶領下，昆明動物所獸類生態與進化學科組與日本宮崎大學、加拿大曼尼託巴大學合作對鼴科鼴族（Talpini）的演化進行了研究。
我們測定了線粒體和核基因的14個基因片段，並對該族群的系統關係進行了分析。我們的結果有力地支持中國北方的麝鼴屬（Scaptochirus）與南方的白尾鼴屬（Parascaptor）是姐妹群關係，首次從系統演化的角度解釋了兩個屬在中耳形態上的相似性。此外我們發現中國和東南亞的東方鼴物種（Euroscaptor）與分布於日本的本州鼴（Euroscaptor mizura）進化起源不同，後者很可能代表了一個新屬。研究結果還表明白尾鼴、東方鼴和缺齒鼴屬（Mogera）中仍存在未知的新物種，在未來的研究中的，新物種的發現和命名仍將是重要的研究方向。
該文章發表於國際雜誌《分子系統學與進化》Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution上。 （生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦的英文摘要：
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution doi：10.1016/j.ympev.2013.10.002
Multilocus phylogeny of talpine moles (Talpini， Talpidae， Eulipotyphla) and its implications for systematics
Kai Hea，Akio Shinohara，Xue-Long Jianga，Kevin L. Campbellb.
The tribe Talpini is a group of strictly subterranean moles distributed across the Eurasian Continent whose phylogenetic relationships and taxonomy remain unresolved. Here we report a multi-locus nuclear-mitochondrial DNA dataset (9468 bp) from 11 talpine species encompassing all five recognized genera， together with analyses of their divergence times and evolutionary affinities inferred from maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches. Our results finely resolved all relationships except the root of the four recognized Asian genera， which was placed sister to the genus Talpa. With respect to the Asian clade， we moreover provide the first molecular support for a sister-taxon relationship between Parascaptor and Scaptochirus and confirm that the genus Euroscaptor is paraphyletic. Further， and despite a relatively small sample size (22 specimens)， our species delimitation analyses support the existence of at least two genetically distinct， and hence potentially cryptic species. Taken together， these findings argue that generic status should be given to E. mizura and illustrate that the taxonomic diversity of the tribe Talpini in mountainous regions of southwestern China and Southeast Asia is underestimated. Finally， results of our divergence time analyses support a rapid radiation of the endemic Asian genera in the late-Miocene， which temporally corresponds with enhanced aridity and cooling arising from a significant uplift of the Himalayan–Tibetan plateau.