Abstract
Variation in five external morphological characters was examined among two
island populations and five remnant mainland populations of the quokka,
Setonix brachyurus. Sexual dimorphism was observed, with
males being significantly larger than females at each location. Pairwise
comparisons among populations showed that significant differences were mostly
between the two island populations. There was a general trend for animal size
to decrease with latitude. Multivariate analyses did not show clear geographic
groups, although the island populations tended to cluster. The inheritance of
the morphological characters was examined by comparing island populations with
those of a captive colony on the mainland, but which originated from the same
island. Significant differences between these populations were observed for
tail-width measures, suggesting that environmental conditions may be
responsible for some variation, but considerable variation may also be due to
underlying genetic variation.
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
19 articles.
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