Morphometric analysis of western palearctic representatives of the genus Apodemus: from determination to ecomorphology

Summarv ThePhDthesisisbasedonthefollowingpapers: Tnsr or cHARAcTER DISpLACEMENTrN URBAN populATroNs oF APODEMUSSYLVATICUS MikulováP.& FryntaD.200l CanadianJournalofZoology79:794-801 We studiedthewood mouse,Apodemussylvaticus,inhabitingparks, cemeteries,suburbanwoods and other green areas in the city of Prague. To assess the character displacement and (or) release hypothesiswe compared seven samples from local populations occurringsympatricallywith Apodemusflavicollis with ten samples from thoselocalities in which A.flavicoltis hasneverbeenrecorded. The analysis included 1410 specimens of A. sylvaticrzscollected duringthe years 1980- 1990. Seventeenskull andbody characters weremeasured.Then the datawere ageor size adjusted,and treated by principal component analyses. Factor scores were fuither subjected to statistical testing. Although the results revealed a considerablevariation among localities, they did not suggest character displacement and (or) release. A. sylvaticus from populations sympatric with l. flavicollis were morphometrically similar to their conspeciÍicsfrom otherpopulationscollected at the periphery of the city. However, slight but statistically highly significant differenceswere found betweensamples from localities in the city centreand those from the periphery. This phenomenon may be..