Geometric morphometric analyses of four species of brush-tailed mice, genus Calomyscus (Rodentia: Calomyscidae), from the Iranian Plateau

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

• B. Zarei
• Jamshid Darvish
• Mansour Aliabadian
• F.Y. Moghaddam

Ferdowsi UNiversity of Mashhad

10.22067/ijab.v9i1.33310

Abstract

The brush-tailed mice of the genus Calomyscus are distributed in the mountains of central
Asia and the Middle East. The genus Calomyscus represents five nominate species from
Iran (C. bailwardi, C. grandis, C. hotsoni, C. urartensis and C. elburzensis). In total 64 specimens
from four species of Calomyscus were studied for morphometric analyses The
morphological differences among 10 populations of the genus Calomyscus were
investigated using landmark-based geometric morphometrics of the left mandible and
Fourier analysis of the first lower molar. The results suggested that four Iranian
Calomyscus species, C. bailwardi, C. grandis, C. hotsoni, and C. elburzensis can be discriminated
with a high probability based on their mandible and first lower molar shapes. Calomyscus
grandis, however, was the most distinct species from others.

Keywords

• en

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