User:Lee E Harding/Reindeer

I propose the following paragraph as a replacement for the notes under the table in Rangifer, Species and Subspecies. Comment by Wikipedia editors/reviewers would be appreciated:

Old text: The table above includes R. t. caboti (the Labrador caribou), R. t. osborni (Osborn's caribou – from British Columbia) and R. t. terraenovae (the Newfoundland caribou). Based on a review in 1961,[62] these were considered invalid and included in R. t. caribou, but some recent authorities have considered them all valid, even suggesting that they are quite distinct.[72][64] An analysis of mtDNA in 2005 found differences between the caribou from Newfoundland, Labrador, southwestern Canada and southeastern Canada, but maintained all in R. t. caribou.[71] There are seven subspecies of reindeer in Eurasia, of which only two are found in Fennoscandia: the mountain reindeer (R. t. tarandus) in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia and the Finnish forest reindeer (R. t. fennicus) in Finland and Russia.[79] Two subspecies are found only in North America: the Porcupine caribou (R. t. granti) and the Peary caribou (R. t. pearyi). The barren-ground caribou (R. t. groenlandicus) is found in western Greenland, but the larger herds are in Alaska, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.[9] According to Grubb, based on Banfield[62] and considerably modified by Geist,[11] these subspecies and divisions are considered valid:[9] the caribou or woodland caribou division, which includes R. t. buskensis, R. t. caribou, R. t. dawsoni, R. t. fennicus, R. t. phylarchus and R. t. valentinae (R. t. osborni is a transitional subspecies between the caribou and tarandus divisions), the tarandus or tundra reindeer division, which includes R. t. caboti, R. t. groenlandicus, R. t. pearsoni, R. t. sibiricus and R. t. terraenovae and the platyrhynchus or dwarf reindeer division, which includes R. t. pearyi and R. t. platyrhynchus. Some of the Rangifer tarandus subspecies may be further divided by ecotype depending on several behavioural factors – predominant habitat use (northern, tundra, mountain, forest, boreal forest, forest-dwelling, woodland, woodland (boreal), woodland (migratory) or woodland (mountain), spacing (dispersed or aggregated) and migration patterns (sedentary or migratory).[84][85][86]

Proposed revised text [references to be added] The table above includes R. a. caboti (the Labrador caribou), R. a. osborni (Osborn's caribou – from British Columbia) and R. c. terraenovae (the Newfoundland caribou). Based on a review in 1961,[62] these were considered invalid and included in R. t. caribou, but some recent authorities have considered them all valid and distinct.[72][64] For example, an analysis of mtDNA in 2005 found differences between the caribou from Newfoundland, Labrador, southwestern Canada and southeastern Canada, but maintained all in R. t. caribou.[71] Since then, several molecular analyses have identified the three western montane ecotypes as of Beringian-Eurasian lineage After a revision,[] there are three species and seven subspecies of reindeer in Eurasia. Eurasian tundra reindeer, R. tarandus, has two subspecies, R. t. tarandus in Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, and western Russia), and R. t. sibiricus in Siberia west of the Urals. The Eurasian forest reindeer (R. fennicus) has two subspecies, R. f. fennicus in Finland and western Russia and R. f. valentinae in the Altai-Sayan Mountains.[79] Three species are found only in North America: the Arctic caribou (R. arcticus with eight subspecies) and the woodland caribou (R. caribou with three subspecies) on the mainland and the Arctic Archipelago and the Greenland caribou (R. groenlandicus), endemic to western Greenland. The name, Tarandus rangifer buskensis Millais, 1915, Busk Mountains reindeer, was selected as the senior synonym to R. t. valentinae Flerov, 1933 in Mammalian Species of the World [] but Russian authors do not recognize Millais and Harding (2022) considered Millais’ articles in The Gun at Home and Abroad [] to be great travelogues for hunters but far short of a taxonomic authority. The name groenlandicus is problematic. Edwards (1743) illustrated and claimed to have seen a male specimen (“head of perfect horns…”) from Greenland and said that a Captain Craycott had brought a live pair from Greenland to England in 1738. He named it Capra groenlandicus, Greenland reindeer. Edwards (1743) predates Linneaus (1758) and is not available for nomenclatural purposes, but the name and provenance of groenlandicus was picked up by Brisson, (1756), also not available for nomenclature, who changed the spelling to Cervus grœnlandicus. Linnaeus 1767, in the 12th edition of Systema naturae, gave grœnlandicus as a synonym for Cervus tarandus. Borowski, 1780 disagreed (and again changed the spelling), saying Cervus groenlandicus, Der Grönländische (Le Cerf de Groenland in French), was morphologically distinct from Eurasian tundra reindeer. Baird 1859 placed it under the genus Rangifer: Rangifer grœnlandicus. It went back and forth as a a full species or subspecies of barren-ground caribou, R. arcticus, or a subspecies of R. tarandus, but always as Greenland Reindeer/Caribou, until Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951 brought all the reindeer and caribou under R. tarandus. Taxonomists consistently documented morphological differences between Greenland and other caribou/reindeer in cranial measurements, dentition, antler architecture, etc. [Allen] [Lydekker] [] Then Banfield (1961) in his famously flawed revision, gave the name groenlandicus to all the barren-ground caribou in North America, Greenland included. Genetic data, reviewed by Harding (2022) [cite suppl. file synonymy] [cite suppl. file Genetic Distance] showed Greenland caribou to be the most distantly related of any caribou to all the others, except for the Svalbard reindeer, to which it is not closely related. A recent revision returned it to species status, R. groenlandicus. [Note: there is more to say about both morphology and genetics, as well as behaviour and ecology, but should be left to a new Wiki page for Greenland Caribou/Reindeer-LEH] Some of the Rangifer subspecies may be further divided by ecotype depending on several behavioural factors – predominant habitat use (northern, tundra, mountain, forest, boreal forest, forest-dwelling, woodland, woodland (boreal), woodland (migratory) or woodland (mountain), spacing (dispersed or aggregated) and migration patterns (sedentary or migratory).[84][85][86] North American examples are the Torngat Mountains caribou DU10, an ecotype of R. c. caboti, a recently discovered, unnamed clade between the Mackenzie River and Great Bear Lake of Beringian-Eurasian lineage, an ecotype of R. a. osborni, the Atlantic-Gaspésie montane caribou DU11, an ecotype of Woodland Caribou R. c. caribou DU6, the Baffin Island caribou, an ecotype of barren-ground caribou and the Dolphin and Union “herd”, an ecotype of R. a. arcticus (see references and discussion in Harding, 2022).[] The last three of these likely qualify as a subspecies but have not been formally described.