Geographical Variation of Skull Size and Shape in Various Populations in the Black Giant Squirrel
FULL PAPER Anatomy Geographical Variation of Skull Size and Shape in Various Populations in the Black Giant Squirrel Hideki ENDO1), Junpei KIMURA2), Tatsuo OSHIDA3), Brian J. STAFFORD4,5), Worawut RERKAMNUAYCHOKE6), Takao NISHIDA6), Motoki SASAKI7), Akiko HAYASHIDA7) and Yoshihiro HAYASHI8) 1)Department of Zoology, National Science Museum, Tokyo, 3–23–1 Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169–0073, 2)Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252–8610, 3)Laboratory of Molecular Ecology, Department of Biology, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan 407, R.O.C., 4)Mammal Division, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 5)Deparmtent of Anatomy, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington DC, U.S.A., 6)Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand, 7)Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080–8555 and 8)Department of Global Agricultural Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113–8657, Japan (Received 18 November 2003/Accepted 25 May 2004) ABSTRACT. We osteometrically examined the skulls of the black giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) from three mainland populations (M. Malayan Peninsula, V. South Vietnam, and B. Burma, India and North Thailand) and from two island populations (T. Tioman, and S. Sumatra Islands). The skull in the Malayan peninsula population was significantly smaller than that of the two other mainland popula- tions. It is consistent with Bergmann’s rule as shown in the gray-bellied squirrel. The two island populations did not show obvious differences in comparison with the Malayan population in many measurements.
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