Sexual dimorphism in the body and skull of the pine marten (M. martes) and stone marten (M. foina) from Lithuania

Abstract

The specific nature of hunting martens and formulating the study samples ordain that the samples of the craniometric data are often smaller than the samples of the morphometric data. Therefore, the problem concerning the credibility of the statistical conclusions on the dimorphism of martens based on the craniometric data remains. To solve this problem, it is imperative to firstly improve the research database of both species of martens residing in Lithuania. The first sexual dimorphism data of the pine martens residing in Lithuania were announced by S. Maldžiūnaitė (1959). Having studied the biology of the pine martens, she determined that compared to the females of the pine martens, the adult males differ in terms of size, weight and body measurements. The goal of this work was to determine the sexual dimorphism of the subadult pine and stone martens living in Lithuania. 32 pine martens and 30 stone martens were studied. It was determined that the subadult males of both species of martens were heftier than the subadult females in terms of the morphometric data of their bodies; however, their sexual dimorphism was not manifested as strongly. The males of both species of martens were slightly bulkier than the female specimens and the statistically significant differences were determined in the body mass, girth, fur weight and tail length data (p< 0.1). Following 14 distinct measurements of the skulls of both species of subadult martens, it was defined that the sexual dimorphism of martens was only faintly indicated by the craniometric data. The following data were deemed to have statistically credible (p<0.1) differences: (PtL), (MxtL), (CbL) and (MnbL) of the pine marten and (BcbH), (MxtL), and (MnbH) of the stone marten (p< 0.1).The sexual dimorphism of both species of marten was statistically reliably attested only by the length of maxillary tooth row (MxtL) out of all the craniometric data of skull measurements.