A study of geographical changes of bullae characteristic in genus Meriones (Rodentia, Muridae) using Outline Method

Document Type : Articles

Authors

• F. Momtazi ¹
• Fereshteh Ghassemzadeh ²
• R. Zarei ¹

¹ 1

² Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22067/ijab.v4i0.9168

Abstract

The characteristics of tympanic bullae have adaptation value. Based on the recent studies
in the genus Meriones; meatus is the only part of tympanic bullae which has a taxonomic
value. In this study, we examined interspecific changes of tympanic bullae in three species
of this genus and also the relation of these changes to the climatic conditions of the
regions was studied in two species. Three species: M. persicus, M. libycus, M. crassus were
studied by Outline method using eigenshape analysis and elliptical Fourier analysis. Two
populations of M. libycus from Birjand, Bardsir (Kerman) and Mashhad; three populations
of M. persicus from Geno in Bandar abbas, from Varamin in Tehran and Birjand in
Central Khorasan provinces. Our studies support the previous result for taxonomic value
of meatus part based on result of elliptical Fourier analysis. They also indicate that
hypertrophy on meatus is closely related to climatic and geographical conditions. It is
related to the temperature changes and shows a cline with temperature between
populations of one species.

Keywords

• Auditory meatus
• Eigenshape analysis
• Elliptical Fourier analysis
• Meriones
• outline

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