Mullin, S. K., Taylor, P. J. & Pillay, N. 2004. Skull size and ... - Durban

MULLIN_08 13/08/04 12:45 Page 11
Traditional measurements suggested the presence
of 9 distinct phena in the CVA biplot (Fig. 2):
MAMMALIA • 2004 • 68 (2)
P R O O F
D. foxi, D. nudipes, D. i. longipilosus, D. i. capensis,
D. i. griseifrons, D. i. incomtus from the KwaZulu-
Natal Province, D. i. incomtus from the Limpopo
and Mpumalanga Provinces, material from Zimbabwe
and material from the Okavango Delta.
Only one of the Okavango Delta OTUs, Kasane-90,
grouped with the Limpopo Province (South Africa)
specimens, while the other four OTUs from this
region were distinct on the second axis. Dasymys
i. longipilosus from Mt Cameroon was distinct on
the first axis and was clearly different from other
material. The two Angolan OTUs representing
D. incomtus grouped with east and central African
OTUs. Dasymys foxi from Jos Plateau in Nigeria
was on the periphery but outside the minimum
African Dasymys systematics
FIG. 3. – Plot of the first two variates of a multi-group canonical variates analysis of the dorsal skull partial warp matrix. The thin-plate
splines (at a magnification factor of 10) depict dorsal skull deformations along the first and second variates. , West African D. rufulus;
〈, D. foxi, π, Ethiopia and Sudan; , D. i. griseifrons; ?, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo;
⊃, D. i. longipilosus; σ, East Africa; ∠, D. montanus; , Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania; τ, D. incomtus from Angola; υ, D. nudipes;
ρ, Okavango Delta; ≤, Zambia; , Zimbabwe; θ, Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces, South Africa; ϖ, KwaZulu-Natal Province,
South Africa; ÷, D. i. capensis. OTUs (defined in Table 6.1) containing karyotyped individuals are demarcated by the diploid number.
convex polygon enclosing other west African material,
and was seen to be more similar to material
from Zambia and Zimbabwe than to other west
African individuals. Similarly, D. i. griseifrons from
Lake Tana, Ethiopia was similar to other east
African OTUs, but it appeared to be morphologically
separate as it was outside the east Africa group.
Two of the Zimbabwean OTUs (95-Mt Selinda,
96-Matopos) fell within the KwaZulu-Natal
Province (South Africa) group. The remainder of
the OTUs (92-Nyamnetsi, 93-Harare, 94-Umtali)
appeared to be morphologically similar to D. i.
incomtus from the Limpopo Province as well as to
Zambian material and one Mozambican OTU
(85-Zambue). Finally, material from eastern,
central and western Africa fell into one of three
groups. East African OTUs separated from the
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