Clinal Variation and Morphology of Woodrats (Neotoma) of the Eastern United States

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Abstract
We examined the cranial and external morphology of putative specimens of Neotoma floridana from the eastern United States to investigate the morphological distinctness of N. f. magister and clinal variation in size of woodrats. Significant differences in quantitative morphologic characteristics between N. f. magister and non-magister specimens were detected using both univariate and multivariate analyses. Although most morphometric characteristics demonstrated distinct clinal variation, covariate analyses indicate that differences between N.f. magister and non-magister specimens cannot be attributed to patterns of clinal variation alone. Specimens of N. f. magister also differ from non-magister specimens with respect to the presence of a maxillo-vomerine notch and, unlike non-magister specimens, none possessed a strongly bifurcated anterior palatal spine. We contend that this pattern of morphologic variation, in conjunction with previous genetic studies, indicates that resurrection of the taxon N. magister is warranted.

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