MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULT MALE WEASEL "MUSTELA SUBPALMATA, HEMPRICH AND EHRENBERG, 1833" FROM DIFFERENT REGIONS IN EGYPT | ||
| Egyptian Journal of Zoology | ||
| Article 22, Volume 80, Issue 80, December 2023, Pages 50-67 PDF (1.37 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Research Papers | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejz.2023.190735.1093 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Mahmoud I. Younes* 1; Eman M. E. Mohallal2 | ||
| 1Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt | ||
| 2Department of Animal and Poultry Physiology, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Most of the characteristics explaining the variability between populations or species were those directly connected with their morphological measurements. Many studies have dealt with morphological measurements among mammalian skulls, but few have dealt in detail with morphological measurements of cranial and dental characters. Forty one adult male specimens of the weasel, Mustela subpalmata, were collected from four different regions in Egypt; Alexandria, Giza, Beni Suif, and Sharquiya. Twenty-eight absolute morphometric characters (body mass + 4 external + 23 cranial and dental) and 23 selected morphological ratios were undertaken. All of these measurements showed no significant difference, except the upper molar M1 breadth/maxillary tooth row length (MuB/MxtL) ratio which showed a significant difference between these four studied regions. The complete external description and coloration of the Egyptian weasel pelage were analyzed in detail. The dental characters showed highly correlation with each other and were highly correlated with the cranial characters, which are also highly correlated with each other. Standing on 28 morphological and 23 selected ratio characters, the Egyptian weasels collected from Beni Suif region differ from those of Alexandria, Giza, and Sharquiya regions. The similarity index between the Egyptian weasels collected from Alexandria and Sharquiya regions is very high. The cluster of each of Alexandria and Sharquiya is somewhat close to Giza cluster. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Cranial characters; Dendrogram; Dental characters; Morphological measurements; Mustela subpalmata | ||
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