Wood mice (Apodemus) have a long evolutionary history and a strong relationship withglobal geological change and floral evolution. In this study, I analyzed morphological variation in two wood mice species at the Hengduan Mountains of Southwest China which have very complex river systems, mountain ranges and geological history. To evaluate morphometric differentiation among the Hengduan mountain ranges, I analyzed the skulls of A. ilex which mainly distribute in the Hengduan mountains, and A. Latronum, a species endemic to the Hengduan mountains. I measured 16 cranial variables for 308 specimens of A. ilex and 188 specimens of A. latronum, and I used multivariate and univariate analyses to examine the cranial morphological differentiation. The analyses showed that A. ilex can be divided into six groups: Northern Gaoligong Mountain, Southern Gongligong Mountain, Northern Yunling Mountains, Southern Yunling Mountains, Yongde Snow Mountain and Dongchuan Jiaozi Mountain while A. latronum can bedivided into 4 groups: Western Sichuan-Southern Tibet, South-Central Sichuan, Northwest Yunnan and Northeast Yunnan. For both species the most important variables were those related to chewing ability and occlusion capacity (CLLMR: Crown length of lower molar row, CLUMR: Crown length of upper molar row,M1-M1: Crown breadth of upper molar, LM1: Length of first upper malar, LLTR: Length of lower tooth row, and IB: Interorbital breadth) suggesting that diet variation plays an important role in the evolutionary adaptations of Apodemus.
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