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Morphological Identification of the East Asian Voles Alexandromys Species (Rodentia, Cricetidae) of Russia and Neighboring Territories

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Abstract

The variation in the dimensions of the skull, hind foot and tail length, first lower molar morphotype, and skull cap structure was studied in museum specimens of all Alexandromys species that occur in Russia. Similar morphotypes of the molars and skull cap structure were observed in different species, and this hindered species identification. In many cases, one could distinguish between pairs of species with a probability greater than 0.95 using metric features. Use of the entire available set of traits, both metric and qualitative, is recommended for the identification of individual specimens.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to F.N. Golenishchev, G.I. Baranova, and A.O. Aver’yanov (St. Petersburg), A.A. Pozdnyakov and N.V. Lopatina (Novosibirsk), N.E. Dokuchaev (Magadan), N.G. Erokhin (Yekaterinburg), F. Mayer and R. Angermann (Berlin), and Q. Yang, L. Xia, D. Ge, and C. Cheng (Beijing) for help in examining the collections. L.L. Voyta (St. Petersburg) gave valuable advice on manuscript preparation. The comments of an anonymous reviewer that prompted considerable improvement of the manuscript are gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 14-04-00163) and the scientific theme of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University (project no. AAAA-A16-116021660077-3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, 125009, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Lissovsky & E. V. Obolenskaya

  2. Moscow Zoo, 123242, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Kadetova

Authors
  1. A. A. Lissovsky
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  2. A. A. Kadetova
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  3. E. V. Obolenskaya
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Correspondence to A. A. Lissovsky, A. A. Kadetova or E. V. Obolenskaya.

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Translated by S. Semenova

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Lissovsky, A.A., Kadetova, A.A. & Obolenskaya, E.V. Morphological Identification of the East Asian Voles Alexandromys Species (Rodentia, Cricetidae) of Russia and Neighboring Territories. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 45, 872–883 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359018080071

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