Morphometric difference between the Novosibirsk and Tomsk chromosome races ofSorex araneus in a zone of parapatry

Abstract

Onischenko S. S., Ilyashenko V. B., Searle J. B. and Borodin P. M. 2002. Morphometric difference between the Novosibirsk and Tomsk chromosome races of Sorex araneus in a zone of parapatry. Acta Theriologica 47: 381-387.A hybrid zone between the Novosibirsk and Tomsk chromosome races of the common shrew Sorex araneus Linnaeus, 1758 was found near Novosibirsk city (West Siberia, Russia) in an area unimpeded by geographic barriers. In this zone, the shrews of both races and their hybrids were trapped and karyotyped and 22 features of their cranial and postcranial skeleton were measured. Canonical discriminant analysis revealed 3 distinct groups of individuals, which corresponded to the 3 karyotypic categories involved in the analysis. The first discriminant function reflected the differences in the size of skeletal elements. The Novosibirsk shrews and the hybrids were significantly smaller than the Tomsk shrews. The second discriminant function was interpreted as a parameter of skeletal proportionality. The hybrids were significantly less proportional than the parental races. This study revealed one of the clearest examples of morphological differentiation between chromosome races of the common shrew.

Morphometric variation of the common shrew, Sorex araneus, in different habitats

“…These authors found that, in one hybrid zone, some external morphological parameters of shrews were larger than in individuals from pure karyotypic races. Polyakov et al (2002) also found clear morphological differentiation between the Novosibirsk and Tomsk chromosome races of 5. araneus in a hybrid zone in West Siberia (Russia). However, the population of shrews in Biaiowieza are located far from the hybrid zones and simple Robertsonian polymorphism exists in this population.…”

Morphometric Differences Between the Phylogeographic Lineages of the Common Hamster Cricetus Cricetus in Poland

“…For example, in the common shrew (Sorex araneus L.), clear morphometric differentiation was found between two Siberian chromosomal races that represented different lineages originating in different refugia. The morphological differentiation was maintained even in the hybrid zone between the races (POLYAKOV et al, 2002). It is probable that in time of high densities of populations, hybrid zones could have also existed between the common hamster lineages, however at present, with less abundant populations and reduced chances of successful dispersal, no hybrid zones were found (NEUMANN et al, 2005;BANASZEK et al, 2009;2010a).…”

Intra-species structuring in the common shrew Sorex araneus (Lipotyphla: Soricidae) in European Russia: morphometric variability could give evidence of limitation of interpopulation migration

“…Although a number of researchers have found morphological differences between the chromosomal races of Sorex araneus (Chętnicki et al, 1996;Polyakov et al, 2002;Okulova et al, 2007), in most studies, morphometric variability was unassociated with racial boundaries (Sulkava et al, 1985;Searle & Thorpe, 1987;Wójcik et al, 2000;Banaszek et al, 2003;Mishta, 2007). Morphological difference was found in cases when the races differed in size.…”

“…So, the remarkable karyotypic diversity of the species is not congruent to its morphological differentiation. Indeed, at least two cases of clear morphological divergence were found between races of different karyotypic groups (Chętnicki et al, 1996;Polyakov et al, 2002). Moska and Paśko (2006) found that though individuals of races from the same karyotypic group (Lęgunski Młyn and Popielno) do not clearly differ, canonical analysis and multidimensional scaling allow discrimination between hybrids and non-hybrids.…”