Abstract In Earth’s history warm and cold periods have alternated. Especially, during the Pleistocene, the alternation between these different climatic conditions has led to frequent range expansions and retractions of many species: while thermophilic species dispersed during warm periods, cold adapted species retracted to cold refugia and vice versa. After the last Pleistocene cycle many cold adapted taxa found refuges in relict habitats in mountain ranges. One example for such a cold adapted relict is the flight…

The bicolored shrew Crocidura leucodon so far has not been reported in Hamburg with certainty. Some plausible historical records before 1920 are present; in turn, two more recent records are doubtful for different reasons. Hence, the Red List status of the species for Hamburg has to be considered uncertain (either not present, or extinct). A citizen scientist provided a specimen of an unknown shrew, an accidental catch by a snap trap, to the Centrum für Naturkunde. The specimen was caught on the 12 th of September…

DNA barcoding represents an objective tool for fast species identification, especially for taxa for which morphological identification is difficult. One current limitation of barcoding is the lack of reference sequences for many groups. While many European and North American countries have started their own barcoding initiatives to generate complete local inventories and databases, such efforts are sparse for African, Asian and South American countries, despite their high biodiversity and comparably poorly explore…

DNA barcoding represents an objective tool for fast species identification, especially for taxa for which morphological identification is difficult. One current limitation of barcoding is the lack of reference sequences for many groups. While many European and North American countries have started their own barcoding initiatives to generate complete local inventories and databases, such efforts are sparse for African, Asian and South American countries, despite their high biodiversity and comparably poorly explore…