Magister Scientiae (Medical Bioscience) - MSc(MBS) / Some African mole-rats of the family Bathyergidea have dramatically different ecological niches which may cause selective anatomical adaptations. Bathyergus suillus lives in sandy soil and eats a wide range of food whereas Georychus capensis is restricted to the mountainous hard soil and eats mainly geophytes. Georychus capensis is considered a chisel-tooth digger in that it uses its incisors to dislodge soil while Bathyergus suillus is a scratch-digger that uses both its incisors and large front paws to dislodge soil. The purpose of this study was to compare certain aspects of the masticatory anatomy of Bathyergus suillus and Georychus capensis. In particular the question that drives this study is: Do the differences in ecology of the two species reflect in the anatomical adaptation of their masticatory apparatus? Nine whole body specimens of each species were obtained for this study. The masticatory apparatus of each specimen was dissected, examined and analysed.Selected bones of their skulls were investigated to determine their gross morphology. Digitalized images were captured by a high-resolution Olympus digital camera and were analysed by DOCU analysis software, in order to determine the morphometric parameters. In addition, the cleaned skulls of each species were weighed with a chemical balance. In order to make the comparison of the four muscles of mastication more effective than when using only their linear measurements, the mass (in grams) of each skull was divided by the length of each metric traits squared in order to yield their respective indices. Various statistical tests were used.This study has thus revealed some dissimilarities between the two species.Comparison of the two species reveals that one of the more distinguishing differences between the two is their upper incisors. There are also significant differences in the morphology and dimensions of their angular plates. And the external pterygoid muscle is significantly larger in Georychus capensis than in Bathyergus suillus, there are no significant differences between the others of the masticatory muscles of the two species.The feeding and foraging activities of Bathyergus suillus as well as Georychus capensis have close relationship with their lifestyles (digging abilities and adaptations). Bathyergus suillus is predisposed to dig with its incisors as well as its large front paws, and the range of food is large, whereas Georychus capensis uses its incisors only to dig, and the range of food is limited. Subsequently the skull of Bathyergus suillus is bigger than Georychus capensis. But, due to the environment of the latter, strong incisors are needed to perform its feeding and digging activities. The investigation thus reveals that the two selected species have successfully adapted their anatomical masticatory elements to their environments.

Microsatellites are repetitive DNA characterized by tandem repeats of short motifs (2 – 5 bp). High mutation rates make them ideal for population level studies. Microsatellite allele genesis is generally attributed to strand slippage, and it is assumed that alleles are caused only by changes in repeat number. Most analyses are limited to alleles (electromorphs) scored by mobility only, and models of evolution rarely account for homoplasy in allele length. Additionally, insertion/deletion events (indels) in the flanking region or interruptions in the repeat can obfuscate the accuracy of genotyping. Many investigators use microsatellites, designed for a focal species, to screen for genetic variation in non-focal species. Comparative studies have shown different mutation rates of microsatellites in different species, and even individuals. Recent studies have used reciprocal comparisons to assess the level of polymorphism of microsatellites between pairs of taxa. In this study, I investigated the evolution of microsatellites within a phylogenetic context, using comparisons within the rodent family Bathyergidae. Bathyergidae represents a monophyletic group endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and relationships are well supported by morphological and molecular data. Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, a robust phylogeny was generated for the Bathyergidae. From my results, I proposed the new genus, Coetomys. I designed species-specific genotyping and microsatellite flanking sequence (MFS) primers for each genus. Sequencing of the MFS provided direct evidence of the evolutionary dynamics of the repeat motifs and their flanking sequence, including rampant electromorphic homoplasy, null alleles, and indels. This adds to the growing body of evidence regarding problems with genotype scores from fragment analysis. A number of the loci isolated were linked with repetitive elements (LTRs and SINEs), characterized as robust phylogenetic characters. Results suggest that cryptic variation in microsatellite loci are not trivial and should be assessed in all studies. The phylogenetic utility of the nucleotide variation of the MFS was compared to the well-resolved relationships of this family based on the 12S/TTR phylogeny. Variation observed in MFS generated robust phylogenies, congruent with results from 12S/TTR. Finally, a number of the indels within the MFS provided a suite of suitable phylogenetic characters.