Cranial and dental analysis of mouse-like hamsters of the genus Calomyscus (Rodentia: Calomyscidae) from plateau of Iran
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1
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran and Rodentology Research Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Publication date: 2012-02-23
Hystrix It. J. Mamm. 2011;22(2)
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ABSTRACT
To assess morphometric interspecific differences, we studied by multivariate and univariate analyses 32 cranial, mandibular and dental variables and four standard external measurements in 84 specimens of the genus Calomyscus (C. elburzensis, C. bailwardi, C. hotsoni and C. grandis) from Iran. Almost all mean cranial measurements in C. grandis were larger than in the other three species, while the opposite occurred for C. hotsoni. C. bailwardi showed the smallest dental measurement. Principal Components Analysis showed seven components with Eigen-Value > 1, explaining 77.08% of total variance. PC1 explained 25.96% of the total variance and clearly separated C. grandis from the other three species. The first two Canonical Discriminant Functions explained 84.4% of the total variance. CDF1 separated C. grandis from the other three species and C. bailwardi from C. hotsoni, while CDF2 separated C. elburzensis from C. hotsoni and, with a little overlap, C. bailwardi. In total, 93.7% of cases was correctly classified. Cluster analysis showed that C. bailwardi and C. elburzensis formed a cluster, to which C. hotsoni was closer than C. grandis. We concluded that a combination of several cranial and dental measures may help to discriminate these four Iranian species of the genus Calomyscus.