Search

Knowledge of Didelphidae taxonomy and diversity has increased steadily over the last decades, mainly due to increasing collection efforts and revisionary works. Yet, especially for mouse opossums, a proper appraisal of morphological variation is still incipient. Thylamys karimii occurs in the Brazilian biomes of Caatinga and Cerrado, and specimens with two different shades of dorsal coloration (brown and gray) were recently documented in sympatry in the Parque Nacional (PARNA) do Catimbau (Caatinga biome). We used qualitative and morphometric data from skulls and skins (n = 7 from PARNA Catimbau and n = 26 from other localities) to compare these two coat color morphotypes and characterize the morphological diversity and taxonomic status of the Caatinga populations. We used Student's t-tests to compare sexes and morphotypes' measurements. We found at least three well-defined coat color morphotypes distinguishable by dorsal and ventral coloration and not restricted to PARNA Catimbau. Variation of the other morphological traits suggests that these morphotypes are more likely a case of intraspecific variation in the Brazilian northeastern region. Morphometric differences, particularly between coat color morphotypes, might be better elucidated in larger samples. Additionally, these specimens represent an important extension of the species' known distribution reaching the Atlantic Forest borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Didelphid marsupials are considered a morphologically unspecialized group with a generalist diet that includes vertebrates, invertebrates, and plant matter. While cranium and scapula variation has already been examined within Didelphidae, variation in mandible shape, usually associated with diet or phylogeny in other mammalian groups, has not yet been properly assessed in the family. We evaluated the variation in mandible shape and size of didelphids (2470 specimens belonging to 94 species) using 2D geometric morphometrics. We classified the diet of the didelphids into four broad categories to assess whether morphospace ordination relates to dietary habits. We also provided the most comprehensive phylogeny for the family (123 out of the 126 living species) using 10 nuclear and mitochondrial genes. We then mapped mandible size and shape onto that phylogeny for 93 selected taxa and ancestral size and shapes were reconstructed by parsimony. We found phylogenetically structured variation in mandible morphology between didelphid groups, and our results indicate that they have a significant phylogenetic signal. The main axis of shape variation is poorly related to size, but the second is strongly allometric, indicating that allometry is not the main factor in shaping morphological diversity on their mandibles. Our results indicate that the shape and size of the ancestral mandible of didelphids would be similar to that of the current species of the genus Marmosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the geographic variations in the shape and size of the cranium and mandible of two woolly opossums, Caluromys derbianus and Caluromys lanatus. Using geometric morphometrics we analyzed 202 specimens of C. derbianus and 123 specimens of C. lanatus, grouped in 7 and 9 populations, respectively. We found sexual dimorphism in shape variables only in the dorsal view of the cranium of Caluromys derbianus, which is not associated with geographical origin. We detected geographic variation in the size of the mandible in two populations (Nicaragua and Northern Panama), but no geographic variation in shape. The size of the cranium of C. lanatus varies significantly, with clinal variation in peri-Amazon populations, with a break between two populations, Bolivia and Paraguay. Shape analyses also revealed some separation between the Paraná population and all other populations. Our results suggest that the available name, Caluromys derbianus, should be maintained for all individuals throughout the geographic range of the species. The same is true for Caluromys lanatus, which can be separated into two distinct morphologic units, Caluromys lanatus ochropus, from the Amazon and Cerrado, and Caluromys lanatus lanatus, from the Atlantic forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]