Museum, University of Nebraska State

 

Date of this Version

5-6-1982

Citation

Annals of the Carnegie Museum (May 6, 1982) 51(article 9): 157-180.

Comments

Copyright 1982, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Used by permission.

Abstract

Shrews of the genus Blarina from Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri were studied morphometrically and karyologically. The ranges of two species, B. brevicauda and B. hylophaga, overlap in a broad zone across southern Iowa and northern Missouri. Morphometric analyses revealed an unexpectedly large amount of cranial variation in B. brevicauda, and confirmed the presence of that species in the Kansas River Valley of northeastern Kansas. Considerable mensural overlap was found in geographic areas in which B. hylophaga and B. brevicauda are sympatric, evincing the need for further karyotypic and morphometric studies in those areas. No formal taxonomic changes are proposed herein pending further study of these species.

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