The Late Pleistocene European badger Meles meles from Grotta Laceduzza (Brindisi, Apulia, Southern Italy): the analysis of the morphological and biometric variability
| Autor: | Raffaele Sardella, Anna M. De Marinis, Beniamino Mecozzi, Donato Coppola, Dawid A. Iurino |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Mustelid
0106 biological sciences 010506 paleontology Biometry Badger Pleistocene Carnivora Postcrania Mediterranean Meles Subspecies 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Aurelian biology.animal Mustelidae Animals Body Size Glacial period Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 0105 earth and related environmental sciences biology Ecology Fossils Skull General Medicine biology.organism_classification Adaptation Physiological Biological Evolution Geography Taxon Italy Interglacial |
| Zdroj: | Die Naturwissenschaften. 106(5-6) |
| ISSN: | 1432-1904 |
| Popis: | In the last decades, many studies have focused on the description of fossil badger materials from Eurasia and several evolutionary hypotheses have been proposed. Nevertheless, the debate on taxonomy of the Late Villafranchian-Aurelian European badgers is still far from being solved and several species/subspecies were established over time. Herein, we described for the first time the craniodental and postcranial remains of Meles meles from Grotta Laceduzza (Apulia, Southern Italy), representing the largest sample of this taxon in the European Pleistocene record. Morphological and morphometric comparisons with fossils coming from the European Pleistocene sites were carried out; morphometric data were also compared with those of several extant populations of the European badger. The results of this work suggest that the badger fossil remains from the Mediterranean region can be considered as an ecomorphotype of this highly polymorphic species, showing a great morphological and morphometric variability throughout its wide geographical range. This variability is mainly expressed in some craniodental features and body size and could reflect local ecological adaptations, also linked to glacial/interglacial cycles. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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