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Ehsan Mostafavi

  • Biodiversity Journal, 5 (4): 475–480

    Zeinolabedin Mohammadi, Jamshid Darvish, Fatemeh Ghorbani & Ehsan Mostafavi
    First record of the Caucasus field mouse Apodemus ponticus Sviridenko, 1936 (Rodentia Muridae) from Iran

    ABSTRACT
    This study is the first record of six specimens of Apodemus ponticus Sviridenko, 1936 (Rodentia Muridae) from the Zagros Mountains, north western Iran. Four external features besides 13 linear measurements of the skull and 14 dental characters were measured. This species was identified by its extensive and well-marked boundary throat spot. In addition, A. ponticus shows morphometric characters including head and body length (mean= 90.86±2.54), length of bullae (mean = 6.34±0.11), breadth of bullae (mean = 4.77±0.12) and dental characters consisting of maxillary tooth row (mean = 3.85±0.06) and mandibular tooth row (mean = 3.90±0.05) which are different from the sympatric species A. witherbyi Thomas, 1902. Based on our results, the distributional range of A. ponticus extends to oak forests of the Zagros Mountains, west Iran which is considered to be the easternmost boundary of its range.