Striped Skunk Mephitis Mephitis

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striped skunk Mephitis mephitis Kingdom: Animalia Division/Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Mephitidae ILLINOIS STATUS common, native FEATURES The striped skunk has a head-body length of 13 to 18 inches and a tail of seven to 10 inches in length. It weighs from six to 10 pounds. Its body, belly and feet are black. The white stripe on the back divides into two, smaller stripes. A small white stripe is present on its nose and forehead. It has long back feet. This skunk has a ﬂuffy, black tail with white on it. BEHAVIORS The striped skunk may be found statewide in Illinois. It lives in pastures with grassy fencerows, weedy roadsides or open woods. The striped skunk eats amphibians, birds, carrion, garbage, grasses, insects, fruits, small mammals, reptiles, roots and vegetables. It feeds and is active mostly during the night. The skunk is known for its bad-smelling scent that is used to spray any animal it considers to be a threat. When initially disturbed, the skunk will arch its back, raise its tail to show the scent glands and stomp the ground. It only releases its foul scent after this warning. The spray may travel over 10 feet. Mating occurs in February or March. After a gestation period of two to two and one-half months, the one to nine young are born. Young are raised under ground in a den, which is usually taken over from another mammal. HABITATS Aquatic Habitats bottomland forests; rivers and streams Woodland Habitats bottomland forests; coniferous forests; southern Illinois lowlands; upland deciduous forests Prairie and Edge Habitats none © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 2017. Biodiversity of Illinois. .

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East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2017 Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus arctos and U. americanus Benjamin James Hillesheim East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Biodiversity Commons, Evolution Commons, and the Paleontology Commons Recommended Citation Hillesheim, Benjamin James, "Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus arctos and U. americanus" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3261. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3261 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus arctos and U. americanus ____________________________________ A thesis presented to the Department of Geosciences East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Geosciences ____________________________________ by Benjamin Hillesheim May 2017 ____________________________________ Dr. Blaine W. Schubert, Chair Dr. Steven C. Wallace Dr. Josh X. Samuels Keywords: Ursidae, Geometric morphometrics, Ursus americanus, Ursus arctos, Last Glacial Maximum ABSTRACT Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus arctos and U. americanus by Benjamin J. Hillesheim Despite being separated by millions of years of evolution, black bears (Ursus americanus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) can be difficult to distinguish based on skeletal and dental material alone. Complicating matters, some Late Pleistocene U. americanus are significantly larger in size than their modern relatives, obscuring the identification of the two bears.
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bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.23.353045; this version posted October 25, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Phylogenomic systematics of the spotted skunks (Carnivora, Mephitidae, Spilogale): 2 Additional species diversity and Pleistocene climate change as a major driver of 3 diversification 4 Molly M. McDonough*,†, Adam W. Ferguson*, Robert C. Dowler, Matthew E. Gompper, and 5 Jesús E. Maldonado 6 *-Equally contributing lead authors 7 †-Corresponding Author 8 Molly M. McDonough, Ph.D. 9 Chicago State University 10 Department of Biological Sciences 11 9501 S. King Drive, WSC 290 12 Chicago, IL 60628-1598 13 [email protected] 14 (773) 995-2443 15 16 17 Abstract 18 Four species of spotted skunks (Carnivora, Mephitidae, Spilogale) are currently recognized: 19 Spilogale angustifrons, S. gracilis, S. putorius, and S. pygmaea. Understanding species 20 boundaries within this group is critical for effective conservation given that regional populations 21 or subspecies (e.g., S. p. interrupta) have experienced significant population declines. Further, 22 there may be currently unrecognized diversity within this genus as some taxa (e.g., S. 23 angustifrons) and geographic regions (e.g., Central America) never have been assessed using 24 DNA sequence data. We analyzed species limits and diversification patterns in spotted skunks 25 using multilocus nuclear (ultraconserved elements) and mitochondrial (whole mitogenomes and 26 single gene analysis) data sets from broad geographic sampling representing all currently 27 recognized species and subspecies.
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