Discrepant partitioning of genetic diversity in mouse lemurs and dwarf lemurs--biological reality or taxonomic bias?

Unequal degrees of taxonomic subdivision can pose problems for research that relies on cross-taxon comparisons of biogeographic patterns. Numerous species of lemurs have been described in recent years. These descriptions were unevenly distributed over the genera of lemurs as exemplified by the closely related mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) and dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus spp.). According to previous studies, these genera display striking differences such as many versus few species, small versus large distributions, and small versus large mitochondrial divergence within and between species. We questioned if these differences reflect the biological reality or a biased taxonomic subdivision, wh…