Intraspecific morphological variation of the middle ear in the European badger,Meles meles(Carnivora: Mustelidae)

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted about the information contained in the anatomy of the mammalian middle ear. Most of these only use a few specimens. Thus we aim to provide a quantitative analysis of the intraspecific and interspecific variations of the middle ear, focusing on the auditory bulla. For that purpose, we focused on the mustelids, as a quite generalist taxon and, more specifically, on the European badger, Meles meles. Our study includes two types of statistical methods. We first compared the mean of a subjectively chosen measure between individuals of the same species and between individuals of different species. We then used a multidimensional scaling procedure to cluster individuals according to different measures. We conclude that the middle ear varies effectively less intraspecifically than interspecifically. However, we think that the few anatomical parameters to measure in the auditory bulla involve using more specimens or focusing on geometric morphometrics in studies focusing on middle ear.