Chromosomal evolution of the common shrew Sorex araneus L. from the Southern Urals and Siberia in the postglacial period

This paper summarizes a series of studies on chromosomal geography of the c ommon shrew Sorex araneus L. in Siberia and the Southern Urals. Chromosomal races inhabiting the Southern Urals and the Western Siberian Plain sequent ially replace each other in the latitudinal direction. In this region, kary otypes of each two adjacent races differ from each other by a single whole- ann reciprocal translocation. In the Eastern Siberian and Altai branches, t he neighboring races differ mainly in the number or set of metacentric chro mosomes. Analysis of the race distribution in the common shrew in the conte xt of paleoecology of the glacial and postglacial period allowed us to reco nstruct the sequence of events leading to the establishment of the present- day structure of the species S. araneus.