Publication details
Dental morphological differences of molecular genetically well separable species. The case of Arvicola persicus
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | In recent years, the number of animal species has increased rapidly and continues to rise. This is mainly due to the constant development of molecular genetics, which has made it possible to split many populations that previously belonged to a single species into different ones. For zoologists working morphologically, but above all for palaeontologists, it is of great importance whether and how the genetically separable taxa can also be distinguished morphologically in recent and fossil material. In fossil small mammals, the most important diagnostic morphological features are usually found in the molars. Accordingly, differences must be detected here. Arvicola is a genus of predominantly aquatic voles with a very large distribution area, whose representatives were all categorised as one species (A. terrestris, now A. amphibius) by most researchers until about 50 years ago. In the following years, A. sapidus (on the Iberian Peninsula and in southern France), then A. monticola (western Alpine region) and A. italicus (Apennine Peninsula) were separated from this species. In 2020, a further new species, A. persicus, was also established for the Arvicola found in Iran and the South Caucasus, among other places, due to genetic peculiarities. In the study presented here, first lower molars of recent A. persicus are morphometrically compared with those of A. amphibius, A. sapidus and A. italicus. Differences in the shape of the anteroconid complex (ratios A/L, B/W and C/W) on the first lower molar and in the enamel thickness (ratio SDQ) between the different groups were found. The values of length and SDQ are much higher in A. persicus from Iran than in A. amphibius, significantly higher than in A. italicus and slightly higher than in A. sapidus (whose mean length value is slightly higher, however). Specimens from Turkey and the southern Levant are most comparable with our finds. A/L and B/W of A. persicus are smaller than in Central European specimens, slightly smaller than in Italian and Spanish specimens and similar to specimens from Turkey and the southern Levant. The C/W values are the largest of all compared specimens from Europe and Western Asia. These results are consistent with the taxonomic and zoogeographic position of the specimens analysed. Thus, also the Turkish and Levantine specimens presumably belong also to A. persicus |