大蹄蝠头骨形态的地理变化

We studied the geographical variation in skull morphology of the Himalayan leaf-nosed bat, Hipposideros armiger across nine populations from South China using geometric morphometrics. We found significant differences in skull size and shape among the nine populations and found the most obvious differences between populations from Simao in Yunnan province and from Lingshui in Hainan province. Results of multivariate regression analysis showed that both the variation in skull size and shape were associated with the variation in climatic factors across sampling localities. With the increase of mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and mean annual humidity, the skull increases in size and becomes lengthened in the facial region, narrowed in the temporal region and smaller in basis cranii, foramen magnum and aural region. Our results suggest that adaptation to local ecological conditions promotes partly the geographical variation in skull morphology of H. armiger in China.