Biosystematic Study of Calomyscus Mystax (Rodentia, Calomyscidae) From Northeastern Iran

We use a combination of traditional and geometric morphometric plus phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences to confirm the presence in the kopetdagh mts. of northeastern iran (north khorasan province) of the great balkhan brush-tailed mouse, calomyscus mystax kashkarov, 1925 previously regarded as endemic to the nibit-dag region of southwestern turkmenistan. we further compare c. mystax to other brush-tailed mice species in eastern and northern iran and provide diagnostic external and craniodental characters for each and to examine the affinities with c. grandis with which c. mystax shares a similar karyotype