Morphological Differentiation of the Skull in Two Closely-related Mustelid Species (Carnivora: Mustelidae).

ABSTRACT: Alexei V. Abramov, Andrey Yu. Puzachenko, and Igor L. Tumanov (2016) A morphological differentiation (i.e., the amount of morphological space occupied) in two polecat species, Mustela putorius and M. eversmanii, has been studied. These closely related species are similar in the body size, the age of origin, and many aspects of their natural history. We have used cranial characters to estimate some parameters of morphological diversity, to compare 'morphological niche breadth' occupied by polecats in the morphological space and their overlap, assuming that variation in the characteristics of morphological diversity could be reflected in the extent of adaptive diversification. A comparison of diversity based on 23 cranial characters shows that the polecats occupied distinct areas of the morp

SUBMITTER: Abramov AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6511815 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature