Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Program

Biology, MS

First Advisor

Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske

Second Advisor

H. Thomas Goodwin

Third Advisor

James L. Hayward

Abstract

The Department of Biology at Andrews University conducted three expeditions to Peru in 1964, 1965, and 1968. During the expeditions, thousands of specimens were collected of several taxa, including mammals. As far as we know, no complete summary of the expeditions and the mammals collected has been created. Knowledge of the expeditions and evaluation of the mammals collected compared to current literature could have conservation implications. My purpose was to recreate the story of the expeditions and use this contextual information to catalog and identify the number of mammal species collected and evaluate the mammal diversity collected according to current literature. This was done by analyzing available specimen lists, field notes, and interviews conducted with surviving participants to create a comprehensive database of all the mammals collected during the expeditions. I determined that nearly 2,900 mammals were collected during the expeditions representing 130 species within 7 orders, 23 families, and 86 genera. Specimens were collected within the ecoregions Puna, Yungas, and Selva Baja. Several species were either not reported in Peru at present or had some of their specimens collected in an unexpected ecoregion according to current literature. Further work is required to improve the accuracy and completeness of the reconstruction of the expeditions and improve the analysis of the mammals collected by completing the mammal identifications and increasing the accuracy of location data. This thesis describes the mammal diversity collected during the expeditions, yet thousands of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects were additionally collected. Future research could aim to summarize the specimens collected of these additional taxonomic groups.

Subject Area

Mammals--Peru; Mammals--Catalogs and preservation; Biology; Diversity; Andrews University. Biology Department

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/theses/201/

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