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Information from diversity inventories was used to study patterns of biodiversity and species distribution, to identify potential priority areas for conservation, and to guide future sampling efforts. In this context, we compiled information on non-volant small mammal communities from the high Andes (>2000 m). Here, we present an open source dataset containing information on diversity (species composition, number of individuals captured), inventory design (type of traps, sampling efforts), and environment (habitat) for both unpublished and published information. This study covers 630 mammalian communities, geographically distributed throughout the Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. We compiled a total of 26,412 individual records belonging to 240 species; the order with greatest number of records was Rodentia (n = 25,319, 96.06%), followed by Didelphimorphia (n = 373, 1.42%), Eulipotyphla (n = 358, 1.36%) and Paucituberculata, (n = 307, 1.16%). Andean non-volant small mammal communities harbor a range from 1 to 17 species, with 93.06% of sites being composed of one to five species, 27.78% of sites with species richness varying from 6 to 10 species, and 4.17% sites composed of more than 10 species. Multiple sampling methods were used to survey non-volant small mammals; the most representative methods were snap-traps and Sherman traps, or a combination of both, in more than 81% of the studies. This data paper represents the first large dataset of faunal species inventories for the Andes. There are no copyright restrictions associated with the use of this dataset. Please cite this data paper when its data are used total or partially in research or teaching., (© 2022 The Authors. Ecology © 2022 The Ecological Society of America.)

Based on a diverse Late-Holocene (1889–1743 cal yrs BP) small mammal assemblage (14 species, 204 individuals) resulting from the trophic activity of owls, we reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions of Las Chacritas area, Catamarca Province, northwestern Argentina. Twenty modern and one additional Late-Holocene samples from the region were used as comparative parameters in the paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Through direct comparison with a present-day assemblage from Las Chacritas, and using Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling, spatial and temporal beta diversity (employing the Sorensen dissimilarity index), and the temporal beta diversity index (TBI) including all the small mammal samples, we quantitatively reconstruct the relationships among modern and Late-Holocene assemblages. Direct comparison showed significant differences, with relative abundances changing markedly over time, with several species of the Late-Holocene assemblage absent in the modern sample whereas many species frequent in the modern community absent in the Late-Holocene. NMDS analysis associated the Late-Holocene assemblage with modern samples of western drier environments. Beta diversity was low for presence-absence and moderate for abundance data, with higher contribution of turnover than nestedness, although for abundance data the proportion of nestedness was higher. TBI showed high variation among both Holocene sites and their present-day counterparts, whereas species gains dominated in modern samples. Our results suggest that the habitats surrounding Las Chacritas have modified markedly since the Late-Holocene. Presence of species today frequent in arid environments and absence of forest-dwelling species suggest that open, dry and relatively rocky habitats characterized this area in that interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phyllotis xanthopygus (Waterhouse, 1837) is an Andean rodent endemic to South America. Despite its wide geographical distribution in Argentina, few individuals have been studied on the cytogenetic level and only through conventional staining. In this work, chromosome characterization of Argentine samples of this species was performed using solid staining, C-banding and base-specific fluorochromes. Twenty two specimens were analyzed, collected in the provinces of Jujuy, Catamarca, and the north and south of Mendoza. All studied specimens showed 2n=38, having mostly the bi-armed autosomes, metacentric or submetacentric. Fundamental Number varied between 70 and 72. These changes were due to the presence of chromosome heteromorphisms in individuals from southern Mendoza and Jujuy. C-banding revealed pericentromeric blocks of constitutive heterochromatin in most chromosomes. Acrocentric chromosomes involved in heteromorphisms showed high variation in the amount of heterochromatin within and among populations. Additionally, banding with fluorochromes (DAPI and chromomycin A3) revealed homologous localization of AT and GC rich regions among chromosomes of the different populations analyzed. Comparisons among heteromorphic pairs suggested, however, that the variation might be the result of complex chromosome rearrangements, involving possibly amplifications and/or deletions of heterochromatic segments. These results are in accordance with molecular studies that indicate genetic variability within and among the populations of this taxon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]