Duiker skulls 3D

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Project title:

Taxonomy and species identification in duikers (Cephalophini) using 3D geometric morphometrics

Unit:

Mammalogy, Morphology Laboratory

Description

Duikers (Bovidae, Artiodactyla) are notoriously hard to classify, and especially in the genus Cephalophus several different species boundaries have been proposed in the past. While some authors recognize more than 25 species based on morphology and suggested geographical ranges, traditionally up to 15 species were recognized, some of them including geographical subspecies. Similarly, in the blue duikers (genus Philantomba) species numbers have recently been increased considerably by elevating geographic subspecies to species level. Using 3D Landmark analysis of museum specimens we aim at investigating the morhological diversity of duikers, evaluating the competing species definitions from a morphometric perspective.