Skull shape in the genus Apodemus: phylogenetic conservatism and/or adaptation to local conditions

Abstract

We studied morphological variation among western Palaearctic species of woodmice (genus Apodemus). Twenty one dental and skull variables were measured and evaluated using multivariate statistical approaches.

A total of 501 specimens of the following 9 sp

Keywords

• morphometrics
• wood mice
• Sylvaemus
• Karstomys
• western palearctic region
• caucasian wood mice
• cytochrome-b
• morphometric characters
• discriminant-analysis
• molecular phylogeny
• allozyme variation
• european apodemus
• a-flavicollis
• middle-east