Subspeciation in the Kangaroo Rat, Dipodomys ordii: KU. Vol 1 No 23Setzer, Henry W.
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Subspeciation in the Kangaroo Rat, Dipodomys ordii: KU. Vol 1 No 23
Setzer, Henry W.
Kangaroo rats
The only external measurements of the animals used were those recorded
by the collectors on the labels attached to the skins. These
measurements were total length, length of tail and length of hind foot.
Measurements of the ear have not been used since they were not in all
instances recorded by collectors and since measurements of dry ears
proved to be unsatisfactory. Only measurements of fully adult specimens
have been used. The term fully adult is applied only to those specimens
in which the auditory bulla is shiny and translucent, the permanent P4
is fully erupted and worn, and the tail is fully striped and
penicillate. No one of these characters alone was accepted as proof of
adulthood but only the three in combination.
The following measurements of the skull have been used in the tables:
_Greatest length._--From the most anterior tip of the nasals to
the most posterior projection of the auditory bullae.
_Greatest breadth across bullae._--From the most lateral
projection of the auditory bulla on one side to the corresponding
position on the other bulla.
_Breadth across maxillary arches._--Greatest breadth across arches
in a plane perpendicular to the long axis of the skull.
_Width of rostrum._--Width of the premaxillae and the nasals taken
immediately anterior to the upper incisors (not greatest width of
nasals which is attained farther anteriorly).
_Length of nasals._--Maximum length of a nasal bone.
_Least interorbital breadth._--Least width between the orbits
immediately posterior to the lacrimal processes.
_Basilar length._--From the anterior margin of the foramen magnum
to the posterior border of the alveolus of one of the upper
incisors.
Capitalized color terms are from Ridgway, "Color Standards and Color
Nomenclature," Washington, D. C., 1912. Color determinations were made
by comparing a masked area of pure color on the side of the animal with
a masked rectangle of named color on Ridgway's plates in natural light
always from the same angle.
Abbreviations used for specimens examined from the various collections
are as follows:
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