Morphological and morphometric analyses of dental and cranial characters in Apodemus hyrcanicus and A. witherbyi (Rodentia: Muridae) from Iran

Abstract

Morphological and morphometric analyses were carried out on 33 specimens representing three Iranian populations of Apodemus hyrcanicus and A. witherbyi. The 39 states of 14 morphological dental and cranial characteristics and 26 tooth and skull characters measured were subjected to detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and discriminant function analysis (DFA) to elucidate valid characters on the basis of two different approaches. The DCA result is in agreement with DFA and the two species were clearly separated from each other. Stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that three cranial and dental characters are sufficient to separate the two species and classify 100% of individuals correctly. The occlusal patterns of M1/, M/1, M/2, the palatopterygoid region, the bulla, the fronto-parietal suture and the angular process of the mandible are particularly distinctive.