Characteristics of External and Cranial Morphological Characters of Asian Lesser White-Toothed Shrew (Crocidura shantungensis)
This study was conducted to screen the characteristics of external and cranial characters of Crocidura shantungensis collected from Korean Peninsula, Ulleung Island and Jeju Island. There were significant differences in head-body length (HBL), tail length (TL), ear length (EL), and hind foot length (HFL) in males and HBL, TL, and HFL in females among three populations (p<0.05). The HBL and TL in the Jeju Island population were larger (8.0 mm and 4.0 mm in lengths, respectively) than those of the Korean Peninsula population. Based on skull analysis, a total of thirteen traits showed significant differences among the three populations (p<0.05). The condylo-insicive length (CIL), maximum width of brain case (MWB), mandibular length (ML), and mandibular height (MH) in the Jeju Island population were significantly larger than those of Korean Peninsula population (p<0.05). Principle component analysis (PCA) showed that two principle components (PC) identified from the PCA affected on the body size and width of the skull, respectively. Discriminant analysis revealed that these populations could be discriminated through skull traits. These findings concluded that the Jeju Island population was greater in the size than the Korean Peninsula, suggesting that the Jeju Island shrews have successfully adapted to the island environments and they had morphologically differentiated during glacial period after natural immigration into that Island. Thus, this study supports the ‘Island Rule’, showing that the population is well adapted to the island environments. This may provide important information for biogeographical and ecological studies on insular animals.