New analysis of variability of cheek teeth in badgers (Carnivora, Mustelidae, Meles)

Baryshnikov G.F., Puzachenko A.Yu., Abramov A.V.

P. 133-149

Variation of cheek teeth in 661 specimens of Eurasian badgers was studied. Geographic distribution of tooth size and morphotypical characters was analyzed. Presence of two groups of badgers (“western” and “eastern”) regarded as allopatric species Meles meles and M. anakuma is confirmed. The small badger from south-western Norway is placed in a new subspecies M. meles milleri ssp. nov. Mosaic pattern of distribution of dental characters and different directions of specialization of cheek teeth in Meles meles and M. anakuma are established. It is assumed on the basis of paleontological material that both species originated from the Late Pliocene M. thorali, their divergence began in the early Pleistocene, and separation on species level occurred in the Middle Pleistocene.DOI: 10.15298/rusjtheriol.1.2.07

• Abramov A.V. 2001. [Notes on the taxonomy of the Siberian badgers (Mustelidae: Meles)] // Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta RAN. Vol.288. P.221-233 [in Russian with English summary].
• Abramov A.V. 2002. Variation of the baculum structure of the Palaearctic badger (Carnivora, Mustelidae, Meles) // Russian Journal of Theriology. Vol.1. No.1. P.57-60.
• Alekseeva E.V. 1984. [Materials to study of fossil badger from Primorskii Territory] // [Problems of Variability and Zoogeography of Mammals]. Vladivostok. P.103-125 [in Russian].
• Allen G.M. 1938. The mammals of China and Mongolia. Part 1. New York: The American Museum of Natural History. 620 p.
• Baryshnikov G.F. 2001. [Order Carnivora] // Aristov A.A. & Baranova G.I. (eds.). [Mammals of Russia and Adjacent Territories. Carnivores and Pinnipeds]. Sankt-Peterburg: Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk. P.11-425. [in Russian].
• Baryshnikov G.F. 2002. Local biochronology of Middle and Late Pleistocene mammals from the Caucasus // Russian Journal of Theriology. Vol.1. No.1. P.61-67.
• Baryshnikov G.F. & Potapova O.R. 1990. [Variability of the dental system in badgers (Meles, Carnivora) of the USSR fauna] // Zoologicheskii Zhurnal. Vol.69. No.9. P.84-97 [In Russian with English summary].
• Belyanin V.N. 1981. [The mammals of the Zhiguli Nature Reserve] // Kaletskaya M.L. (ed.). [Ecological and Morphological Researches in the Reservations]. Moskva: Tsentralnaya Nauchno-Issledovatel'skaya Laboratoriya Okhotnichego Khozayistva i Zapovednikov. P.89-103 [in Russian].
• Corbet G.B. 1978. The Mammals of the Palaearctic Region: a Taxonomic Review. London, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 314 p.
• Davison M.L. & Jones L.E. (eds.). 1983. Special Issue: Multidimensional Scaling and its Applications // Applied Psychological Measurement. No.7. P.373-514.
• Degerbøl M. 1933. Danmarks pattedyr I fortiden I sammenligning med recente former // Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra dansk naturhistorisk Forening, Kobenhavn. Bd.96. P.357-641.
• Ellerman J.R. & Morrison-Scott T.C.S. 1951. Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian Mammals (1758 to 1946). London: Trustees of British Museum (Natural History). 810 p.
• Evans J.D. 1968. Knossos Neolithic. Part II: Summary and conclusion // The Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens. Vol.63. P.267-276.
• Festa E. 1914. Escursioni zoologiche del Dr. Enrico Festa nell' Isola di Rodi. XI. Mammiferi // Bollettino del Musei di Zoologia ed Anatomia comparata della R. Università di Torino. Vol.29. No.686. P.1-21.
• Goodman L.A. & Kruskal W.H. 1954. Measures of association for cross-classifications // Journal of the American Statistical Association. No.49. P.732-764.
• Heptner V.G. 1968. [Some theoretical aspects of the appearance and distribution of Palearctic mammals. Two views on geographical variation] // Sbornik Trudov Zoologicheskogo Muzeya Moskovskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Vol.10. P.3-36 [in Russian]
• Heptner V.G., Naumov N.P., Yurgenson P.B., Sludskii A.A., Chirkova A.F. & Bannikov A.G. 1967. [Mammals of the Soviet Union. Vol.2. Part 1. Sea Cows and Carnivores]. Moskva: Vysshaya Shkola. 1004 p. [in Russian].
• Hysing-Dahl Ch. 1954. Den norske grevling Meles meles (L.) // Naturvitenskapelig rekke, Bergen. No.16. P.1-55.
• James F.C. & McCulloch Ch.E. 1990. Multivariate analysis in ecology and systematics: panacea or Pandora's box? // Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. Vol.21. P.129-166.
• Jennrich R.I. 1977. Stepwise discriminant analysis // Enslein K., Ralston A. & Wilf H.S. (eds.). Statistical Methods for Digital Computers. New York: Wiley. P.75-95.
• Kamei T. 1981. Faunal succession of Pleistocene mammals in the Japanese Islands: an aspect // Quartärpaläontologie. Bd.4. P.165-174.
• Kastschenko N.F. 1902. [About sandy badger (Meles arenarius Satunin) and about the Siberian races of badger] // Ezhegodnik Zoologicheskogo Muzeya Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk. Vol.6 [for 1901]. No.4. P.609-613 [in Russian].
• Koufos G. 1992. The Pleistocene carnivores of the Mygdonia basin (Macedonia, Greece) // Annales de Paleontologie (Vertébrés - Invertébrés). Vol.78. Fasc.4. P.205-257.
• Kruskal J.B. 1964. Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to nonmetric hypothesis // Psychometrika. Vol.29. No.1. P.1-27.
• Kurose N., Kaneko Y., Abramov A.V., Siriaroonrat B. & Masuda R. 2001. Low genetic diversity in Japanese populations of the Eurasian badger Meles meles (Mustelidae, Carnivora) revealed by mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences // Zoological Science. Vol.18. No.8. P.1145-1151.
• Long C.A. & Killingley C.A. 1983. The Badgers of the World. Springfield: Charles C.Thomas. 404 p.
• Lüps P. & Roper T. 1988. Tooth size in the European badger (Meles meles) with special reference to sexual dimorphism, diet and intraspecific aggression // Acta Theriologica. Vol.33. No.2. P.21-33.
• Lüps P. & Wandeler A. 1993. Gattung Meles Brisson, 1762 // Stubbe M. & Kraft F. (eds.). Handbuch der Säugetiere Europas. Bd.5. Teil.2. Wiesbaden: AULA-Verlag. S.855-906.
• Lynch J. 1994. Morphometric variation in the badger (Meles meles): clinal variation in cranial size and shape across Eurasia // Small Carnivore Conservation. No.10. P.6-7.
• Lynch J., Whelan R., Fituri A.I. & Hayden T.J. 1997. Craniometric variation in the Eurasian badger, Meles meles // Journal of Zoology, London. Vol.242. No.1. P.31-44.
• Mein P. 1990. Updating of MN zones // Lindsay E.H., Fahlbusch V. & Mein P. (eds.). European Neogene Mammal Chronology. New York: Plenum Press. P.73-90.
• Neal E. 1948. The Badger. London: Collins. 158 p.
• Ognev S.I. 1931. [The mammals of the Eastern Europe and Northern Asia]. T.2. Moskva-Leningrad: Gosizdat. 776 p. [in Russian].
• Pei Wen-Chung. 1934. On the Carnivora from Locality 1 of Choukoutien // Palaeontologia Sinica, Series C. Vol.8. Fasc.1. P.1-166.
• Petrov V.V. 1953. [The data on the intraspecific variability of badgers (genus Meles)] // Uchenye Zapiski Leningradskogo Pedagogicheskogo Instituta. T.7. P.149-205 [in Russian].
• Puzachenko A.Yu. 2001. [Skull variability in the common mole rat Spalax microphthalmus (Spalacidae, Rodentia). 1. A method for analysis of data, nonage variability in males] // Zoologicheskii Zhurnal. T.80. No.3. P.343-357 [in Russian with English summary].
• Puzachenko Yu.G., Pridnya M.V., Martin V. & Sankovski A.G. 1996. Representation of ecological niches of species for the mixed forest ecosystems of the Hubbard Brook Basin (White Mountains, New England, North America) // Russian Journal of Ecology. Vol.27. No.6. P.385.
• Rabeder G. 1976. Die Carnivoren (Mammalia) aus dem Altpleistozän von Deutsch-Altenburg 2. Mit Beiträgen zur Systematik einiger Musteliden und Caniden // Beiträge zur Paläontologie der Österreich. Bd.1. S.5-119.
• Satunin K.A. 1914. [Key to Mammals of the Russian Empire]. Vol.1. Tiflis: Tipografiya Kantselyarii Namestnika. 184 p. [in Russian].
• Shepard B.N. 1962. The analysis of proximities: multidimensional scaling with unknown distance function // Psychometrika. Vol.27. No.2. P.125-140.
• Shikama T. 1949. The Kuzuü ossuaries: geological and palaeontological studies of the limestone fissure deposits, in Kuzuü, Totigi Prefecture // The Sciences Reports of the Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. Second Series: Geology. Vol.23. P.1-201.
• Sneath P.H.A. & Sokal R.R. 1973. Numerical Taxonomy. The principles and practice of numerical classification. San Francisco: W.H.Freeman. 573 p.
• Sokal R.R. & Rohlf F.J. 1981. Biometry. New York: W.H.Freeman & Co. 837 p.
• Sotnikova M.V. 1989. [Carnivora of the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene] // Trudy Geologicheskogo Instituta AN SSSR. T.440. P.1-125 [in Russian].
• Steensma K. & Reese D. 1996. The mustelines of Crete // Reese D. (ed.). Pleistocene and Holocene fauna of Crete and its first settlers. Madison, Wisconsin: Prehistory Press. P.159-166. (Monograph in World Archaeology, No.28).
• Stubbe M., Stubbe A., Ebersbach H., Samjaa R. & Dorzraa O. 1998. Die Dachse (Melinae/Mustelidae) der Mongolei // Beiträge zur Jagt- und Wildforschung. Bd.23. S.257-262.
• Teilhard de Chardin P. 1940. The fossils from Locality 18 near Peking // Palaeontologia Sinica, Series C. No.124. P.1-100.
• Viret J. 1950. Meles thorali n.sp. du loess villafranchien de Saint-Vallier (Drôme) // Eclogae geologicae helvetiae. Vol.43. No.2. P.274-287.
• Wolsan M. 2001. Remains of Meles hollitzeri (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Lower Pleistocene site of Untermassfeld // Kahlke R.-D. (ed.). Das Pleistozän von Untermassfeld bei Meiningen (Thüringen). Teil 2. S.659-671. (Monographien des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz. Bd.40, 2).
• Wozencraft W.C. 1993. Order Carnivora // Wilson D.E. & Reeder D.A. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Washington, London: Smithsonian Institution Press (Second Edition). P.279-348.
• Zdansky O. 1925. Quartäre carnivoren aus Nord-China // Palaeontologia Sinica, Series C. Vol.2. Fasc.2. P.1-30.
• Zimmermann K. 1953. Die Carnivora von Kreta // Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde. Bd.17. Hf.1. S.58-65.