Craniometrical Differentiation of Population of The Flat-headed Vole in North Kazakhstan and South-east Altai

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2260

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In this paper we analyzed the morphological differences between populations of the flat-headed vole inhabiting Kazakh Upland and South-east Altai inclusive of the age variation. As used in this paper a comprehensive phenotypic analysis using the methods of multivariate statistics allows detecting steady set of quantitative traits that characterize the conjugate development at different stages of ontogeny. Voles of these 2 populations, despite such contrasting habitat conditions are similar in overall size of the skull. It was found that the voles from Kazakhstan were significantly different from all the others, and the differences between the known Altai populations do not reach the level of subspecies. Our results about the differences of adults are generally consistent and complement the results of previous studies. The main differences between the voles from Kazakhstan and Altai relate to the width of the interorbital space, height of the skull and length of the diastema. No significant differences in the zygomatic width between samples from Kazakhstan and South-east Altai found.

Flat-headed vole; morphological variability; craniometrical material; craniometrical variability; discriminant analysis; Bayanaul and Altai populations of flat-headed voles