What is it about?
This study reassessed cranial variation in Taterillus using 64 landmarks from 192 adult specimens representing seven species from 47 African localities. It tested how well skull shape distinguishes species and examined the influence of phylogeny, allometry, geographic separation, and climate on cranial variation.
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Why is it important?
Taterillus species are difficult to distinguish because they are morphologically conservative and traditional diagnostic characters are often unreliable. The broader sampling and more comprehensive landmark set used here improved taxonomic assessment while also showing that cranial shape is structured by several factors, particularly body size, geography, and climatic variation.
Perspectives
This study revisits an earlier analysis with substantially broader specimen and geographic coverage. The expanded dataset provided a stronger test of both taxonomic discrimination and the processes underlying cranial variation in this difficult gerbil genus.
Bader H. Alhajeri
Kuwait University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Taterillus cranial shape variation is linked to allometry, geography, and climate (Gerbillinae, Rodentia), Mammal Research, September 2025, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s13364-025-00817-x.
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