Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies
Populations of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in the Commander Islands, in the Russian Bering Sea, have been isolated since the Pleistocene and differ substantially in their cranial features from their mainland counterpart. Small rodents, the main prey of mainland Arctic foxes, are not found in the Com...
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ftunivcoimbra:oai:estudogeral.sib.uc.pt:10316/102101 2023-05-15T14:31:08+02:00 Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies Nanova, Olga Prôa, Miguel 2017 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/102101 https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 eng eng grant from the Russian Science Foundation no. 14-50-00029. 1751-8369 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/102101 doi:10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2017 ftunivcoimbra https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 2022-10-04T23:59:36Z Populations of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in the Commander Islands, in the Russian Bering Sea, have been isolated since the Pleistocene and differ substantially in their cranial features from their mainland counterpart. Small rodents, the main prey of mainland Arctic foxes, are not found in the Commander Islands, where the main food source for Arctic foxes are large sea birds and marine mammals. Here we assessed whether differences in foraging strategy, particularly the size of available prey, could explain the observed differences in cranial features between mainland and island Arctic foxes. Because a large gape is necessary when foraging on large prey, we compared gape angles between islands and mainland in a sample of dry crania. We found an enlarged gape angle in both island populations. We also compared the rostrum to cranium length ratio and found it to be similar for the mainland and Bering Island Arctic foxes; however, a rostrum contraction was found in the Mednyi Island Arctic foxes. We show that cranial differences between mainland and Commander Islands fox populations could be explained by their different foraging ecology. Furthermore, the relative rostrum contraction in the Mednyi Island foxes provides further evidence for cranial resistance to deformation during biting. These results show the importance that distinct foraging strategies can have in Arctic fox divergent evolution, and, consequently, on future conservation plans for the two Commander Islands subspecies. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Fox Arctic Bering Island Bering Sea Vulpes lagopus Universidade de Coimbra: Estudo Geral Arctic Bering Sea Polar Research 36 sup1 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universidade de Coimbra: Estudo Geral |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcoimbra |
language |
English |
topic |
Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation |
spellingShingle |
Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation Nanova, Olga Prôa, Miguel Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
topic_facet |
Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation |
description |
Populations of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in the Commander Islands, in the Russian Bering Sea, have been isolated since the Pleistocene and differ substantially in their cranial features from their mainland counterpart. Small rodents, the main prey of mainland Arctic foxes, are not found in the Commander Islands, where the main food source for Arctic foxes are large sea birds and marine mammals. Here we assessed whether differences in foraging strategy, particularly the size of available prey, could explain the observed differences in cranial features between mainland and island Arctic foxes. Because a large gape is necessary when foraging on large prey, we compared gape angles between islands and mainland in a sample of dry crania. We found an enlarged gape angle in both island populations. We also compared the rostrum to cranium length ratio and found it to be similar for the mainland and Bering Island Arctic foxes; however, a rostrum contraction was found in the Mednyi Island Arctic foxes. We show that cranial differences between mainland and Commander Islands fox populations could be explained by their different foraging ecology. Furthermore, the relative rostrum contraction in the Mednyi Island foxes provides further evidence for cranial resistance to deformation during biting. These results show the importance that distinct foraging strategies can have in Arctic fox divergent evolution, and, consequently, on future conservation plans for the two Commander Islands subspecies. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nanova, Olga Prôa, Miguel |
author_facet |
Nanova, Olga Prôa, Miguel |
author_sort |
Nanova, Olga |
title |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_short |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_full |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_fullStr |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_sort |
cranial features of mainland and commander islands (russia) arctic foxes (vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10316/102101 https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 |
geographic |
Arctic Bering Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Bering Sea |
genre |
Arctic Fox Arctic Bering Island Bering Sea Vulpes lagopus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Fox Arctic Bering Island Bering Sea Vulpes lagopus |
op_relation |
grant from the Russian Science Foundation no. 14-50-00029. 1751-8369 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/102101 doi:10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
36 |
container_issue |
sup1 |
container_start_page |
7 |
_version_ |
1766304843215929344 |