Sexual Dimorphism in the Asian Snake-Eyed Skink, Ablepharus pannonicus (Fitzinger, 1823 (Sauria): Scincidae) from Iran

Rasoul Karamiani, Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani

Abstract


So far, sexual dimorphism in the A. pannonicus is undocumented. In this survey 72 specimens (40 males and 32 females) of this lizard were collected from Kermanshah Province, western Iran. The uni- and multivariate analyses performed on the morphological data (10 meristic and nine metric characters) revealed that females are larger than males for some characters (DFH, DSV, SVL/HW, SDL, and CP). In the other words, sexual differences were female-biased, presumably influenced by fecundity selection and female investment in reproduction in Ablepharus pannonicus.

Keywords


Ablepharus pannonicus; morphology; Statistical analysis; Iran

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2018-25-1-1-5

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