Cranial morphometric variations of Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) from the Zagros mountains and northern and northeastern mountainous areas based on Geometric morphometric analysis
Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
wild life expert
Abstract
Persian leopard is considered as the largest feline in Iran, which has the wide distribution along the Alborz and the Zagros mountains. Considering the differences in climate, vegetation types, dietary habits, as well as the substantial fragmentation in their habitats in the two mountainous areas, morphological variation of the species in the two areas it looks probable. A landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis was performed using high quality 2D pictures from the dorsal, lateral, and ventral views of 42 Persian leopardʼs skulls. Procrust Analysis was used to remove the effect of none-shape parameters in landmark points and Discriminant Analysis was carried out to verify the differences between skulls in the two study areas. Our results revealed that the skulls of the two ranges of mountains are different in their overall shape, as we found the significant differences in zygomatic arch, occipital bone and nasal suture of frontal bone between the two dataset. This could be resulted from different allometric growth pattern, habitat characteristics and environmental parameters, and genetic variation among the populations of the species in this two geographic ranges.
Keywords
Adams, D.C., Rohlf, F.J., Slice, D.E., 2004. Geometric morphometrics: Ten years of progress following the ‘Revolution’. Italian Journal of Zoology 71, 5-16.
Bookstein, F.L., 1991. Morphometric tools for landmark data: geometry and biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Cardini, A., Diniz Filho, J.A.F., Polly, P.D., Elton, S., 2010. Biogeographic analysis using geometric morphometrics: clines in skull size and shape in a widespread African arboreal monkey. A.M.T. Elewa (Ed.), Morphometrics for Nonmorphometricians, Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 124, Springer-Verlag Publishers, Heidelberg, Germany.
Drake, A.G., Klingeberg, G.P., 2010. Large-Scale Diversification of Skull Shape in Domestic Dogs: Disparity and Modularity. American naturalist 175, 289-301.
Farhadinia, M.S., 2009. Taxonomy, genetic diversity and craniometrical analysis of Persian leopard, MSc thesis. Department of Environment, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran, 220 p. (in Persian).
Farhadinia, M.S., Ahmadi, M., Sharbafi, E., Khosravi, S., Alinezhad, H., Macdonald, D.W. 2015. Leveraging trans-boundary conservation partnerships: persistence of Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in the Iranian Caucasus. Biological Conservation 191, 770-778.
Farhadinia, M.S., Moqanaki, E.M., Hosseini-Zavarei, F., 2014. Predator–prey relationships in a middle Asian Montane steppe: Persian leopard versus Urial wild sheep in Northeastern Iran. European Journal of Wildlife Research 60(2), 341-349.
Figueirido, B., SERRANO‐ALARCÓN, F.J., Slater, G.J., Palmqvist, P., 2010. Shape at the cross‐roads: homoplasy and history in the evolution of the carnivoran skull towards herbivory. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23, 2579-2594.
Figuerido, B., Palmqvist, P., Perez-Claros, J.A., 2009. Ecomorphological correlates of craniodental variation in bears and paleobiological implications for extinct taxa: an approach based on geometric morphometrics. Journal of Zoology 277, 70-80.
Gavashelishvili, A., Lukarevskiy, V., 2008. Modelling the habitat requirements of leopard Panthera pardus in west and central Asia. Journal of Applied Ecology 45, 579–588.
Hammer, Ø., Harper, D.A.T., Ryan, P.D., 2001. PAST: Paleontological Statistics Software Package for Education and Data Analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 4, 1.
Imani Harsini, J., 2010. Craniometric variations in brown bear (Ursus arctus) of Alborz Mountain and Zagros Mountain. MSc Seminar. Department of Environment, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran, 78 p. (In Persian).
Imani Harsini, J., Kaboli, M., Ahmadi, M., Khosravi, R., Nazarizadeh, M., Rasoulinasab, F., 2016. Morphometric variation in the skull of Brown bear in Alborz and Zagros mountains. Journal of Applied Biology 29(2), 5-22 (In Persian).
Jacobson, A.P., Gerngross, P., Lemeris Jr, J.R., Schoonover, R.F., Anco, C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Laguardia, A., 2016. Leopard (Panthera pardus) status, distribution, and the research efforts across its range. PeerJ 4, e1974.
Khorozyan, I., 2008. Panthera pardus ssp. saxicolor: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. Available at://www.iucnredlist.org (Last accessed on 19 January 2012).
Kiabi, B.H., Dareshouri, F.B., Ghaemi, A. Jahanshahi, M., 2002. Population status of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor Pocock, 1927) in Iran. Zoology in the Middle East 26, 41-47.
Klingenberg, C.P., 2008. MorphoJ. Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. Available at http://www.flyw HYPERLINK "http://www.flywings.org.uk/MorphoJ-page.htm" Dong HYPERLINK "http://www.flywings.org.uk/MorphoJ-page.htm" ings.org.uk/MorphoJ-page.htm.
Loy, A., Genov, P., Galfo, M., Jacobone, M.G., Vigna, A., 2008. Cranial morphometrics of the pennine brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) and preliminary notes on the relationships with other southern European populations. Italian Journal of Zoology 75, 67-75.
Mazak, J.H., 2010. Craniometric variation in the tiger (Panthera tigris): Implications for patterns of diversity, taxonomy and conservation. Mammalian Biology 75, 45–68.
Meiri S.h., Dayan T., Simberlof D., 2005. Biogeographical patterns in the Western Palearctic: the fasting-endurance hypothesis and the status of Murphy’s rule. Journal of Biogeography 32, 369–375.
Milenković, M., Blagojević, V.J.Š.J., Tatović, S., Vujošević, M., 2010. Skull variation in Dinaric–Balkan and Carpathian gray wolf populations revealed by geometric morphometric approaches. Journal of Mammalogy 91, 376-386.
Mitteroecker, P., Gunz, P., 2009. Advances in Geometric Morphometrics. Evolutionary Biology 36, 235-247.
Murtskhvaladze, M., Gavashelishvili, A., Tarkhnishvili, D., 2010. Geographic and genetic boundaries of brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in the Caucasus. Molecular Ecology 19, 1829-1841.
Nezami, B., Karami, M., Eagderi, S., Kaboli, M., 2015. Allometric growth pattern and sexual dimorphism of skull on brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758) of the Alborz Mountain. Journal of Natural Environment, Iranian Journal of Natural Resources 68(1), 137-154 (In Persian).
Nowell, K., Jackson, P., 1996. Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
Ohdachi, S., Aoi, T., Mano, T., Tsubota, T., 1992. Growth, Sexual Dimorphism, and Geographical Variation of Skull Dimensions of the Brown bear Ursus arctos in Hokkaido. Journal of Mammalogy 17, 27-47.
Proctor, M.F., 2002. Population Fragmentation of Grizzly bear in Southeastern British Columbia, Canada. Ursus 13, 153-160.
Rohlf, F. J., 2003. tpsSmall, version 1.20. Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Rohlf, F.J., 2006. TpsDig2, Version 2.10. Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Rohlf, F.J., Marcus, L.F., 1993. A revolution in morphometrics. Trend in Ecology and Evolution 8, 129-132.
Rohlf, F.J., Slice, D.E., 1990. Extensions of the Procrustes method for the optimal superimposition of landmarks. Systematic Zoology 39, 40-59.
Sharbafi, E., Farhadinia, M.S., Rezaie, H.R., Braczkowski, A.R., 2016. Prey of the Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in a mixed forest-steppe landscape in northeastern Iran (Mammalia: Felidae). Zoology in the Middle East 62(1), 1-8.
Taghdisi, M., Mohammadi, A., Nourani, E., Shokri, S., Rezaei, A., Kaboli, M., 2013. Diet and habitat use of the endangered Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in northeastern Iran. Turkish Journal of Zoology 37(5), 554-561.
Uphyrkina, O., Johnson, W.E., Quigley, H., Miquelle, D., Marker, L., Bush, M., O'Brien, S.J., 2001. Phylogenetics, genome diversity and origin of modern leopard, Panthera pardus. Molecular Ecology 10, 2617–2633.
Ziaie, H., 2008. A Field Guide to Mammals of Iran. 2nd ed. Wildlife Center Publication, Tehran, Iran (in Persian).
Zuccarelli M.D., 2004. Comparative morphometric analysis of captive vs. wild African lion (Panthera leo) skulls. Bios 75, 131-138.
)