6533b823fe1ef96bd127f372

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Sicilian (Crocidura sicula) and the Canary (C. canariensis) shrew (Mammalia, Soricidae): Peripheral isolate formation and geographic variation

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Abstract The skull and mandible morphometrics of two insular and endemic taxa (C. sicula and C. canariensis) from the Sicilian and Canary archipelagos, both having exactly the same karyotype were analysed by principal component and canonical variate analyses and related multivariate techniques. Information available in the literature was also employed to obtain a better approach to the systematics relationships in this taxon. Specimens of C. suaveolens, C. leucodon, C. whitakeri and C. russula from the Mediterranean, and C. esuae from the Pleistocene of Spinagallo (Sicily) were used as references. The results of multivariate analyses of the metric and non‐metric characters of the skull and mandible, coupled with data from the biochemical and cytotaxonomic literature, have provided unanimous results pointing to the marked phenetic similarity of the C. sicula and C. canariensis taxa, that are ascribable to the same monophyletic group. On paleobiogeographic grounds, it is suggested that both taxa are two rel...