Revisiting the species status of Pecari maximus van Roosmalen et al., 2007 (Mammalia) from the Brazilian Amazon

摘要

Three extant species of peccaries (Tayassuidae) are currently recognized and are distributed in the Americas:Pecari tajacu, Tayassu pecariand Catagonus wagneri. The recent claim for a new peccary species, Pecari maximus, rais-es questions about whether there is sufficient molecular or other evidence to support it as a new species. Here, we revis-it that evidenceusing 91 published and 50 novel DNA sequences mainly from P. tajacu, as well as comment on the mor-phological and ecological evidence used to support such a claim. Phylogenetic analyses show that the single specimenof P. maximusused clustered within the South American lineage of P. tajacu closely related to Brazilian specimens. Inaddition, the morphological and ecological data used to claim the species status of P. maximus appears to be deficientand inconclusive, in the light of available literature.