Morphological Identification of the East Asian Voles Alexandromys Species (Rodentia, Cricetidae) of Russia and Neighboring Territories

Abstract

The variation in the dimensions of the skull, hind foot and tail length, first lower molar morphotype, and skull cap structure was studied in museum specimens of all Alexandromys species that occur in Russia. Similar morphotypes of the molars and skull cap structure were observed in different species, and this hindered species identification. In many cases, one could distinguish between pairs of species with a probability greater than 0.95 using metric features. Use of the entire available set of traits, both metric and qualitative, is recommended for the identification of individual specimens.