David William Fleck

Scopus Publications

MAMMALIAN DIVERSITY AND MATSES ETHNOMAMMALOGY IN AMAZONIAN PERU PART 5. RODENTS
Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck, Thomas C. Giarla
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2024
In this report, the fifth and last of our monographic series on mammalian diversity and ethnomammalogy in the Yavari-Ucayali interfluvial region of northeastern Peru, we document the local occurrence of 40 species of rodents, including 5 sciurids, 17 cricetids, 1 caviid, 1 cuniculid, 2 dasyproctids, 1 dinomyid, 2 erethizontids, and 11 echimyids.The following substantive taxonomic results, among others, are reported: (1) We discuss current issues of sciurid classification and treat all New World tree squirrels (Sciurini), except North American Tamiasciurus, as members of the genus Sciurus; the proposed subgeneric classification is monophyletic, and it conserves longstanding binomial usage for most species.(2) We describe a new species of squirrel, Sciurus (Hadrosciurus) pachecoi, which had previously been identified as a distinct lineage by molecular analyses.(3) We discuss the nominal taxa currently synonymized with S. (H.) pyrrhinus and comment on the application of names to phenotypes and mitochondrial haplogroups.(4) The currently accepted type locality of S. (H.) spadiceus (Cuiaba) cannot be correct; instead, documentary evidence suggests that the holotype must have been collected near Santarém.( 5) Sciurus flaviventer appears to be the only valid species of Microsciurus (sensu lato) that occurs in the Amazonian lowlands; Amazonian records of taxa previously reported in the literature as M. sabanillae and M. "species 2" appear to be based on erroneous geographic coordinates and unexplained genotype/ phenotype discordance, respectively.(6) We discuss and illustrate the diagnostic morphological characters of Nectomys apicalis and N. rattus, which have broadly overlapping distributions in northern Peru.( 7) We analyze cytochrome b sequence data from 143 specimens of Oecomys from western Amazonia and summarize evidence for multiple unnamed lineages; of these, three from the Yavari-Ucayali interfluve are described as new species.(8) We question the recognition of O. tapajinus as a species distinct from O. roberti due to the lack of unambiguously diagnostic characters and the doubtful identity of the holotype of tapajinus.( 9) We confirm sympatry between two species of Scolomys and provide revised diagnostic criteria for S. melanops and S. ucayalensis.(10) We report the only specimen of Dinomys branickii accompanied by definite locality data from Loreto department.(11) Proechimys quadruplicatus and P. steerei, closely related species previously thought to occur on opposite banks of the Peruvian Amazon, are both present in the Yavari-Ucayali interfluve; diagnostic characters are tabulated for the six species of Proechimys now known to occur in our region.Despite intensive and methodologically complementary faunal-sampling efforts, our rodent inventory is probably incomplete; at least four additional species could be expected to occur in our region based on geographic range data.If all four do occur there, then our inventory is about 90% complete.Documented sympatric species richness at intensively sampled sites in our region is substantially less than the regional total, but because of methodological omissions, no site is believed to have been completely inventoried for rodents.In the absence of known barriers to mammalian dispersal within the Yavari-Ucayali interfluve, however, local (sympatric) species richness is probably constrained only by habitat availability.Matses knowledge of rodents is richly detailed for primary game species (Cuniculus paca and Dasyprocta fuliginosa) but is less detailed for less culturally important subsets of the fauna.As previously documented for other mammals (e.g., primates, xenarthrans, and ungulates), important game species are known by multiple names (including synonyms and hyponyms), whereas less culturally important but still salient species (e.g., squirrels) have single names, and many inconspicuous (e.g., small, nocturnal, and morphologically indistinguishable) species do not have unique identifiers.With the rodents treated in this report, the mammalian fauna of the Yavari-Ucayali interfluve is now known to include at least 201 species, but >20 additional species (mostly bats) could still be expected in the region based on geographic range data.Despite the probable incompleteness of our inventory, the Yavari-Ucayali interfluve is the only part of western Amazonia with an extensively documented mammal fauna.Therefore, the completion of this monographic series provides a unique taxonomic resource for urgently needed mammalogical research in this ecologically intact but increasingly vulnerable region.
Complement clause type and complementation strategies in Matses
Complementation A Cross Linguistic Typology, 2023
REANALYSIS OF SHIPIBO STRESS MOTIVATED BY NEW DATA ON PREFIXATION
David W. Fleck
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2023
Shipibo, spoken in Amazonian Peru, has a complex system of word-level stress assignment that early studies described as being partially predictable and partially lexically determined. More recent studies have attempted to analyze Shipibo primary stress as overall predictable by postulating underlying consonants. However, hitherto no phonological studies have considered the effect of prefixation on stress assignment, which provides definitive evidence that primary stress in Shipibo is in fact only partially predictable. Body-part prefixes also uncover stress patterns that reveal important clues about the structure of proto-Panoan syllables. This paper proposes a synchronic analysis of Shipibo stress that takes into account these new data and puts forward a historical explanation for the intricate stress systems found in many modern Panoan languages.
Vestiges of body-part prefixation in Marubo
David W. Fleck
Grammar of Body Part Expressions A View from the Americas, 2022
Most Panoan languages have a set of approximately thirty monosyllabic prefixes that designate mostly body parts and extensions of these. In the Panoan languages that have been studied in detail, these body-part prefixes have been found to be productive morphemes. Marubo seems to be a counterexample. This chapter argues that despite the large number of recurring elements with body-part meanings found in nouns, adjectives, and verbs, prefixation is not productive in Marubo. Nevertheless, these patterns suggest that Marubo once did have a productive system of body-part prefixation, so a second purpose of this chapter is to consider the diachronic scenarios that can explain how Marubo body-part prefixation was arrested.
Why Is Matses an Onomatopoetic Language?
David W. Fleck
Anthropological Linguistics, 2022
The lexicon of the Matses language of the Panoan family, spoken in Amazonian Peru and Brazil, has an extraordinarily high proportion of terms of onomatopoetic origin. To understand how and why onomatopoeia has become so prominent in the Matses language, this study presents linguistic properties of Matses onomatopoeia that reveal its high level of integration into the language, and identifies aspects of traditional Matses culture that contribute to the generation and maintenance of onomatopoetic terms.
Mammalian Diversity and Matses Ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru Part 4: Bats
Paúl M. Velazco, Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck, Nancy B. Simmons
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2021
In this report, the fourth of our monographic series on mammalian diversity and Matses ethnomammalogy in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluvial region of northeastern Peru, we document the occurrence of 98 species of bats, including 11 emballonurids, 2 noctilionids, 66 phyllostomids, 1 furipterid, 4 thyropterids, 7 vespertilionids, and 7 molossids. New species based on specimens collected in this region (Peropteryx pallidoptera, Micronycteris matses, Hsunycteris dashe, Sturnira giannae, and Thyroptera wynneae) have already been described elsewhere, but noteworthy distributional and taxonomic results newly reported here include the first specimen of Diclidurus isabella from Peru and the diagnosis of Glossophaga bakeri as a species distinct from G. commissarisi. Lists of examined voucher specimens, identification criteria, essential taxonomic references, and summaries of natural history observations are provided for all species. Original natural history information reported herein includes numerous observations of roosting behavior obtained by indigenous Matses collaborators. We assess the Yavarí-Ucayali bat inventory for completeness and conclude that more species remain to be discovered in the region, where as many as 116 species might be expected. Most of the “missing” species (those expected based on geographic criteria but not actually observed) are aerial insectivores, a guild that is notoriously difficult to sample by mistnetting. Of the 98 species in the observed regional fauna, only 71 are known to occur sympatrically at Jenaro Herrera, by far the best-sampled locality between the Yavarí and Ucayali rivers. Faunal comparisons with extralimital inventories (e.g., from Brazil, Ecuador, and French Guiana) suggest that frugivorous bats are substantially more speciose in western Amazonia than in eastern Amazonia, a result that is consistent with previous suggestions of an east-to-west gradient in the trophic structure of Amazonian mammal faunas. As previously reported, the Matses have only a single name for “bat,” but they recognize the existence of many unnamed local species, which they distinguish on the basis of morphology and behavior. However, by contrast with the well-documented accuracy of Matses observations about primates and other game species, recorded Matses monologs about bat natural history contain numerous factual errors and ambiguities. Linguistic underdifferentiation of bat diversity and inaccurate natural history knowledge are both explained by cultural inattention to small, inedible, and inoffensive nocturnal fauna.
Mammalian Diversity and Matses Ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru Part 3: Marsupials (Didelphimorphia)
Robert S . Voss, David W. Fleck, Sharon A . Jansa
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2019
This report is the third in our monographic series on mammalian diversity and Matses ethnomammalogy in the Yavari-Ucayali interfluvial region of northeastern Peru. Based on taxonomic analysis of specimens collected in the region, we document the occurrence of 19 species of marsupials in the genera Caluromys, Glironia, Hyladelphys, Marmosa, Monodelphis, Metachirus, Chironectes, Didelphis, Philander, Gracilinanus, and Marmosops. Our principal taxonomic results include the following: (1) we provide a phylogenetic analysis of previously unpublished mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data for Caluromys that supports the reciprocal monophyly of all currently recognized species in the genus but reveals substantial heterogeneity in one extralimital taxon; (2) we explain why Marmosa constantiae is the correct name for the southwestern Amazonian taxon previously known as Mar. demerarae, and we diagnose Mar. constantiae from Mar. rapposa, a superficially similar species from southern Peru, eastern Bolivia, and central Brazil; (3) we explain why Mar. rutteri is the correct name for one of the Amazonian species currently known as Mar. regina, and we restrict the latter name to the transAndean holotype; (4) we recognize Metachirus myosuros as a species distinct from Met. nudicaudatus based on morphological comparisons and a phylogenetic analysis of new mtDNA sequence data; and (5) we name a new species of Marmosops to honor the late Finnish-Peruvian naturalist Pekka Soini.Of the 19 marsupial species known to occur in the Yavari-Ucayali interfluve, 16 have been recorded in sympatry at Nuevo San Juan, the Matses village where we based most of our fieldwork from 1995 to 1999. We explain why we believe the marsupial species list from Nuevo San Juan to be complete (or nearly so), and we compare it with a species list obtained by similarly intensive fieldwork at Paracou (French Guiana). Although Nuevo San Juan and Paracou are 2500 km apart on opposite sides of Amazonia, the same opossum genera are present at both sites, the lists differing only in the species represented in each fauna. We briefly discuss current explanations for spatial turnover in species of terrestrial vertebrates across Amazonian landscapes and provide evidence that the upper Amazon is a significant dispersal barrier for marsupials.Marsupials are not important to the Matses in any way. In keeping with their cultural inattention to mammals that are inconspicuous, harmless, and too small to be of dietary significance, the Matses lexically distinguish only a few kinds of opossums, and they are not close observers of opossum morphology or behavior.
Productivity and lexicalization in shipibo body-part prefixation
David W. Fleck
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2018
Shipibo, a Panoan language spoken in Amazonian Peru, has a set of 31 monosyllabic forms, representing mostly body parts, which are phonologically attached to the front of verbs, adjectives and nouns. For most of these morphemes, noun roots designating body parts exist which are semantically similar and whose initial segments are the same. Consequently, previous scholars have analyzed these prefixed forms as allomorphs of or otherwise synchronically derived from the noun roots. The present paper will present evidence demonstrating that Shipibo-Konibo body-part morphemes are independent prefixes and best analyzed as not being synchronically derived from body-part nouns. Furthermore, although body-part prefixation is quite productive in Shipibo, many lexicalized prefixed stems exist, which have undergone semantic and/or phonological changes. Therefore, a second goal of this paper is to provide a more accurate description of the grammar of Shipibo prefixation by identifying lexicalized stems and treating them separately.
Mammalian Diversity and Matses Ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru Part 2: Xenarthra, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, and Sirenia
Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2017
This report continues our monographic analysis of mammalian diversity and Matses ethnomammalogy in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluvial region of northeastern Peru. Based primarily on specimens collected in the region from 1926 to 2003, interviews with Matses hunters, and published sight surveys of large mammals, we document the local occurrence of 33 species of xenarthrans, carnivores, perissodactyls, artiodactyls (including cetaceans), and sirenians. All of the species in these groups, with the exception of the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis), are recognized and named by the Matses, from whom we recorded extensive accounts of mammalian natural history. The local xenarthran fauna consists of nine species (Cabassous unicinctus, Priodontes maximus, Dasypus novemcinctus, D. pastasae, Bradypus variegatus, Choloepus hoffmanni, Cyclopes didactylus, Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Tamandua tetradactyla), all of which are represented by examined specimens. Only two xenarthrans (D. pastasae and C. hoffmanni) are primary game species for the Matses, who are familiar with many aspects of their biology that were previously unrecorded in the scientific literature. However, Matses interviews also provide important new information about the behavior of D. novemcinctus (a secondary game species) and M. tridactyla, neither of which has previously been studied in rainforested environments. The local carnivore fauna consists of 16 species (Atelocynus microtis, Speothos venaticus, Leopardus pardalis, L. wiedii, Panthera onca, Puma concolor, Pu. yagouaroundi, Eira barbara, Galictis vittata, Mustela africana, Lontra longicaudis, Pteronura brasiliensis, Bassaricyon alleni, Nasua nasua, Potos flavus, Procyon cancrivorus), most of which are represented by examined specimens; six species without preserved voucher material are known from camera-trap photographs and/or unambiguous sightings by Matses hunters and field biologists. Although the coati (N. nasua) is the only carnivore occasionally hunted by the Matses for food, Matses interviews are richly informative about the natural history of other species, notably including S. venaticus, Leopardus spp., Pa. onca, Puma spp., and E. barbara. All of the local ungulates (Tapirus terrestris, Pecari tajacu, Tayassu pecari, Mazama americana, M. nemorivaga) are hunted by the Matses for food, and the hunters we interviewed are correspondingly well informed about the natural history of most of these species, with the exception of the seldom-encountered gray brocket (M. nemorivaga). Both species of local cetaceans (Inia geoffroyi, Sotalia fluviatilis) are familiar to the Matses, although neither is eaten. The xenarthrans, carnivores, ungulates, and aquatic mammals that inhabit the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve are all widespread species, so this component of the regional fauna, as currently understood, is not biogeographically distinctive, nor is it extraordinarily diverse (by western Amazonian standards). Although we discuss several noteworthy taxonomic and nomenclatural issues relevant to these taxa, the principal contribution of this report consists in the natural history information compiled from our Matses informants and the resulting overview of local community structure as defined by diurnal activity, locomotion, social behavior, and trophic relationships.
A new species of nectar-feeding bat of the genus Hsunycteris (Phyllostomidae: Lonchophyllinae) from Northeastern Peru
Paúl M. Velazco, J. Angel Soto-Centeno, David W. Fleck, Robert S. Voss, Nancy B. Simmons
American Museum Novitates, 2017
A new species of the nectarivorous bat genus Hsunycteris is described from lowland Amazonian forest in northeastern Peru. The new species, H. dashe, can be distinguished from other congeners by its larger size; V-shaped array of dermal chin papillae separated by a wide basal cleft; metacarpal V longer than metacarpal IV; broad rostrum; lateral margin of infraorbital foramen not projecting beyond rostral outline in dorsal view; well-developed sphenoidal crest; large outer upper incisors; weakly developed lingual cusp on P5; and well-developed, labially oriented M1 parastyle. A phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome-b sequence data indicates that H. dashe is sister to a clade that includes all other species of the genus including H. cadenai, H pattoni, and a paraphyletic H. thomasi. We provide a key based on craniodental and external characters of all four known species of Hsunycteris.
Roosting ecology of Amazonian bats: Evidence for guild structure in hyperdiverse mammalian communities
Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck, Richard E. Strauss, Paúl M. Velazco, Nancy B. Simmons
American Museum Novitates, 2016
Panoan languages and linguistics
David W. Fleck
Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 2013
Body-part prefixation in Kashibo-Kakataibo: Synchronic or diachronic derivation?
Roberto Zariquiey Biondi, David W. Fleck
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2012
Reported speech in matses: Perspective persistence and evidential narratives
Robert Munro, Rainer Ludwig, Uli Sauerland, David W. Fleck
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2012
Mammalian diversity and matses ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru part 1: Primates
Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2011
A new species of peropteryx (chiroptera: Emballonuridae) from western amazonia with comments on phylogenetic relationships within the genus
Burton K. Lim, Mark D. Engstrom, Fiona A. Reid, Nancy B. Simmons, Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck
American Museum Novitates, 2010
Pet vocatives in Southwestern Amazonia
Anthropological Linguistics, 2009
On the diagnostic characters, ecogeographic distribution, and phylogenetic relationships of Gracilinanus emiliae (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae: Thylamyini)
Mastozoologia Neotropical, 2009
Coreferential fourth-person pronouns in matses
David W. Fleck
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2008
Evidentiality and double tense in matses
David W. Fleck
Language, 2007
Field linguistics meets biology: How to obtain scientific designations for plant and animal names
David W. Fleck
Stuf Sprachtypologie Und Universalienforschung, 2007
On the origin and cultural significance of unusually large synonym sets in some Panoan languages of Western Amazonia
Anthropological Linguistics, 2006
Body-part prefixes in Matses: Derivation or noun incorporation?
David W. Fleck
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2006
Antipassive in matses
David W. Fleck
Studies in Language, 2006
Biological basis of saki (Pithecia) folk species recognized by the matses Indians of Amazonian Peru
David W. Fleck, Robert S. Voss, James L. Patton
International Journal of Primatology, 1999

David William Fleck

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