Kristofer M. Helgen
YOU?
Author Swipe
View article: Complete Rainforest Elevational Gradient Reveals Unusual Diversity Patterns of Non‐Volant Mammals in New Guinea
Complete Rainforest Elevational Gradient Reveals Unusual Diversity Patterns of Non‐Volant Mammals in New Guinea Open
Aim We address a critical gap in the elevational community ecology of tropical non‐volant mammals in the Australian and Oceanian zoogeographic realms. Specifically, we document alpha and beta diversity, environmental predictors and communi…
View article: Genomic and morphometric evidence for Austronesian-mediated pig translocation in the Pacific
Genomic and morphometric evidence for Austronesian-mediated pig translocation in the Pacific Open
Human mediated translocation of non-native pig species (genus Sus ) to the islands of Wallacea and Oceania has significantly altered local ecosystems. To investigate the timing and trajectory of these introductions, we conducted both genom…
View article: Evolution and ecology of body size in the world’s largest bats
Evolution and ecology of body size in the world’s largest bats Open
Pteropus and closely related flying fox genera in the subfamily Pteropodinae represent a remarkable radiation of insular taxa. Comprising more than 80 species, the group includes the largest living or extinct bat species. Exceptional vagil…
View article: The complete mitochondrial genome of Poncelet’s giant rat ( <i>Solomys ponceleti</i> ) from the Solomon Islands Archipelago
The complete mitochondrial genome of Poncelet’s giant rat ( <i>Solomys ponceleti</i> ) from the Solomon Islands Archipelago Open
Poncelet's giant rat (Solomys ponceleti Troughton 1935), is a rare, large murine rodent that is endemic to the Solomon Islands Archipelago in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The species is only known from the adjacent islands of Bougainville …
View article: Attenborough’s echidna rediscovered by combining Indigenous knowledge with camera-trapping
Attenborough’s echidna rediscovered by combining Indigenous knowledge with camera-trapping Open
We confirm the 'rediscovery' of Attenborough's long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), one of only five modern egg-laying mammals and, until now, one of the planet's most enigmatic 'lost species'. Unrecorded for 62 years, we present…
View article: President Roosevelt’s lions reveal a century of population fragmentation in Africa’s largest carnivore
President Roosevelt’s lions reveal a century of population fragmentation in Africa’s largest carnivore Open
Over the past century, lion ( Panthera leo ) populations across Africa have experienced rapid and severe declines. Despite this, East Africa is considered a modern-day lion stronghold. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing of both recent an…
View article: Large‐scale and long‐term wildlife research and monitoring using camera traps: a continental synthesis
Large‐scale and long‐term wildlife research and monitoring using camera traps: a continental synthesis Open
Camera traps are widely used in wildlife research and monitoring, so it is imperative to understand their strengths, limitations, and potential for increasing impact. We investigated a decade of use of wildlife cameras (2012–2022) with a c…
View article: Molecular systematics of the Dendrolagus goodfellowi species group (Marsupialia: Macropodidae)
Molecular systematics of the Dendrolagus goodfellowi species group (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) Open
Tree-kangaroos (genus Dendrolagus) are a morphologically distinctive genus of specialized, arboreal macropodids confined to the wet forests of New Guinea and northeast Australia. A distinct Goodfellow’s group, containing up to four species…
View article: A replacement name for the endemic Rattus (Muridae, Mammalia) of the island of Obi, Indonesia
A replacement name for the endemic Rattus (Muridae, Mammalia) of the island of Obi, Indonesia Open
The name Rattus obiensis Fabre, Portela Miguez, Holden, Fitriana, Semiadi, Musser, & Helgen, was recently applied to a newly discovered species of Rattus known to date only from the Moluccan island of Obi in Indonesia. However, this name i…
View article: A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia
A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia Open
Six species of monotremes, three newly described here, occur in the Cenomanian fossil fauna from Lightning Ridge in northeastern New South Wales, Australia, making it the most diverse monotreme assemblage on record. Four species are known …
View article: Shifting mammal communities and declining species richness along an elevational gradient on Mount Kenya
Shifting mammal communities and declining species richness along an elevational gradient on Mount Kenya Open
Conservation areas encompassing elevation gradients are biodiversity hotspots because they contain a wide range of habitat types in a relatively small space. Studies of biodiversity patterns along elevation gradients, mostly on small mamma…
View article: Extant and extinct bilby genomes combined with Indigenous knowledge improve conservation of a unique Australian marsupial
Extant and extinct bilby genomes combined with Indigenous knowledge improve conservation of a unique Australian marsupial Open
The Ninu (Greater bilby, Macrotis lagotis) is a desert-dwelling, culturally and ecologically important marsupial. In collaboration with Indigenous rangers and conservation managers, we generated the first Ninu chromosome-level genome assem…
View article: A new giant shrew rat (Rodentia, Muridae, Murinae) from Flores, Indonesia and a comparative investigation of its ecomorphology
A new giant shrew rat (Rodentia, Muridae, Murinae) from Flores, Indonesia and a comparative investigation of its ecomorphology Open
We describe a new genus and species of large-bodied murine from archaeological deposits at Liang Bua, a limestone cave in western Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Among a large assemblage of murine remains, several mandibular element…
View article: Two new species of Halmaheramys (Murinae: Rattini) from archaeological deposits on Morotai Island, North Moluccas, Indonesia
Two new species of Halmaheramys (Murinae: Rattini) from archaeological deposits on Morotai Island, North Moluccas, Indonesia Open
Two new species of murine rodents (Halmaheramys funderus sp. nov. and H. bellwoodi sp. nov.) are described from remains in an archaeological site on Morotai Island in North Maluku (Maluku Utara) Province of Indonesia. Both species are appr…
View article: Wallacean mammalogy and zooarchaeology: remembrances and a renaissance
Wallacean mammalogy and zooarchaeology: remembrances and a renaissance Open
[Excerpt] The richness of life is not distributed haphazardly across the globe, but instead exhibits profound, non-random patterns. Numbers of species of insects, trees, and frogs, for example, abound in tropical localities, like in Brazil…
View article: The mammal fauna of Kofiau Island, off western New Guinea
The mammal fauna of Kofiau Island, off western New Guinea Open
Kofiau’s terrestrial mammal fauna shares many taxa with oceanic islands lying close to New Guinea. Its fauna is distinctive in possessing a mixture of Moluccan near-endemics, such as Pteropus chrysoproctus, along with Melanesian species, l…
View article: Review of Moluccan Rattus (Rodentia: Muridae) with description of four new species
Review of Moluccan Rattus (Rodentia: Muridae) with description of four new species Open
International audience
View article: Rediscovery of the long-eared bat genus Nyctophilus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in Timor and a reassessment of Nyctophilus timoriensis
Rediscovery of the long-eared bat genus Nyctophilus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in Timor and a reassessment of Nyctophilus timoriensis Open
The only previous record of the Long-eared bat genus Nyctophilus from the island of Timor is a specimen collected by the Baudin expedition in 1803, used to describe Nyctophilus timoriensis by Geoffroy (1806). However, its geographic attrib…
View article: Combining camera trap surveys and IUCN range maps to improve knowledge of species distributions
Combining camera trap surveys and IUCN range maps to improve knowledge of species distributions Open
Reliable maps of species distributions are fundamental for biodiversity research and conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps are widely recognized as authoritative representations of species’ geog…
View article: Notes on mammals collected on the 1885 Geographical Society of Australasia’s Expedition to New Guinea
Notes on mammals collected on the 1885 Geographical Society of Australasia’s Expedition to New Guinea Open
In 1885 the Geographical Society of Australasia sent the steam launch Bonito to chart the Fly and Strickland Rivers (now in Western Province, Papua New Guinea). The Expedition spent five months in New Guinea with the primary objectives of …
View article: Photoluminescence in mammal fur: 111 years of research
Photoluminescence in mammal fur: 111 years of research Open
Photoluminescence in the pelage of mammals, a topic that has gained considerable recent research interest, was first documented in the 1700s and reported sporadically in the literature over the last century. The first detailed species acco…
View article: Reconstructing mechanisms of extinctions to guide mammal conservation biogeography
Reconstructing mechanisms of extinctions to guide mammal conservation biogeography Open
An emerging research program on population and geographic range dynamics of Australia's mammals illustrates an approach to better understand and respond to geographic range collapses of threatened wildlife in general. In 1788, Europeans co…
View article: Individuality and stability of the koala ( <i>Phascolarctos cinereus</i> ) faecal microbiota through time
Individuality and stability of the koala ( <i>Phascolarctos cinereus</i> ) faecal microbiota through time Open
Gut microbiota studies often rely on a single sample taken per individual, representing a snapshot in time. However, we know that gut microbiota composition in many animals exhibits intra-individual variation over the course of days to mon…
View article: Reassessment of the subspecific status of the Australian Wet Tropics yellow-bellied glider, Petaurus australis
Reassessment of the subspecific status of the Australian Wet Tropics yellow-bellied glider, Petaurus australis Open
The Wet Tropics (WT) population of the yellow-bellied glider Petaurus australis Shaw, 1791 in North Queensland is listed as Endangered at the state and national level, but its taxonomic classification is currently uncertain. Here we expand…
View article: Supplementary data for the description of a new Giant Rat Shrew from Holocene sediments of Flores, Indonesia
Supplementary data for the description of a new Giant Rat Shrew from Holocene sediments of Flores, Indonesia Open
The dataset presented here links to a separate publication in Rec Aust Mus 75(5) (2023) in which the authors describe a new genus and species of large-bodied murine from archaeological deposits at Liang Bua, a limestone cave in western Flo…
View article: Diversity of <i>Leptospira</i> spp. in bats and rodents from Papua New Guinea
Diversity of <i>Leptospira</i> spp. in bats and rodents from Papua New Guinea Open
Leptospirosis is the most common bacterial zoonosis globally. The pathogen, Leptospira spp., is primarily associated with rodent reservoirs. However, a wide range of other species has been implicated as reservoirs or dead-end hosts. We con…
View article: The Gondwanan Origin of Tribosphenida (Mammalia)
The Gondwanan Origin of Tribosphenida (Mammalia) Open
A review of the Southern Hemisphere Mesozoic tribosphenic mammal fossil record supports the hypothesis that Tribosphenida arose in the Southern Hemisphere during the Early Jurassic, around 50 million years prior to the clade's reliably dat…
View article: Individuality and stability of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) faecal microbiota through time
Individuality and stability of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) faecal microbiota through time Open
Background Gut microbiota studies often rely on a single sample taken per individual, representing a snapshot in time. However, we know that gut microbiota composition in many animals exhibits intra-individual variation over the course of …