Morphological Correlates of Speciation in Bush Babies

Morphology is not a reliable specific indicator in nocturnal animals. Nevertheless, because species are genetically independent, appropriate analytic methods should reveal subtle and consistent morphological differences among them. Until recently, the diversity of living bush babies was underrated, and new species have been recognized on the basis of genetic, behavioral and soft tissue data. This has placed museum curators in a quandary as to how to sort their skin and skull collections according to the new specific designations. We conducted multivariate analyses of 6 morphologically similar pairs of bush baby taxa: Otolemur crassicaudatus and O. garnettii; Galagoides demidoffand G. thomasi; Galago gallarumand G. senegalensis; G. moholi and G. senegalensis; Euoticus elegantulus and E. pallidus, and Galagoides zanzibaricus and G. granti. We also compared subspecies within the taxa Otolemur crassicaudatus, O. garnettii, Galagoides demidoff, and Galago senegalensis. Five out of six species pairs were discriminated with a high level of reliability (88.5-99%) on the basis of 2-5 morphological variables. Only Euoticus elegantulus and E. pallidus did not show this pattern. All strongly supported specific discriminations share two features: (a) ear length is a highly significant factor, while the involvement of other characters is variable; (b) the greater the reliability of the discrimination, the fewer variables necessary to effect it. Euoticus elegantulus and E. pallidus behaved more like subspecies in the discrimination, while Galago senegalensis sspp. showed a pattern of variation similar to that in the specific analyses.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]