Measurement standards

Color

Species descriptions may reference the Munsell color system or Ridgway's color standards. Links below will take you to online versions of these color references.

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  Example page from the Munsell Soil Color Book. To view additional color pages, click on link to Soils at UGA.

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  Example page from Ridgway's Color standards and color nomenclature. To view additional color pages, click on link to Color standards and color nomenclature by Robert Ridgway.

Skull measurements

Sorex

(Above) From Carraway (1989): Camera-lucida tracing of skull of a Sorex (PSM 14425) illustrating skull dimensions measured (after van Zyll de Jong, 1980:67, Fig. 1): 1, greatest length of skull; 2, cranial breadth; 3, maxillary breadth; 4, least interorbital breadth; 5, width across I1- I1; 6, breadth of zygomatic plate; 7, breadth at M2-M2; 8, length of unicuspid toothrow; 9, length of complex toothrow; 10, depth of cranium; 11; length of mandibular toothrow; 12, length of mandible; 13, height of coronoid process; 14, coronoid process-condyle length; 15, greatest condylar depth; 16, width of lower condylar facet; 17, width of upper condylar facet.

(Above) From Richards (1982): Palate (above) and right dentary (below) of Sorex fumeus, illustrating comparative measurements. 1, Total length of mandible (including incisor); 2, Total length of dentary; 3, p3-m3; k, p4--m3; 5, ml-m3; 6, Length, ml; 7, Length, m3; 8, Depth of dentary at m2; 9, Width of condyle; 10, Width (least) of vertical ramus; 11, Length of incisor; 12, Maxillary width; 13, Palatal length; lit., P4-M3. Note, dentary lays flat on labial side for measuring. Measurements with dotted lines are taken from the opposite side.

Notiosorex

Camargo and Álvarez-Castañeda (2020).

Peromyscus

(Above) From Léon-Tapia et al. (2020): Total length (TL), body length (BL), tail vertebrate length (TVL), hind feet length (HFL), ear length (EL), greatest skull length (GL), length of braincase (LBC), depth of braincase (DBC), breadth of braincase (BBC), zygomatic breadth (ZB), interorbital breadth (IB), breadth of rostrum (BR), length of nasals (LN), length from supraorbitals to nasals (LSN), length from palatal to nasals (LPN), upper toothrow length (UTL), length of incisive foramen (LIF), breadth of zygomatic plate (BZP), length of auditory bulla (LAB), postpalatal length (PL), diastema length (DL), breadth of mesopterygoid fossa (BM), basisphenoid width (BW), basioccipital width (BOW), breadth of palatal at first molar (BP1), and breadth of palatal at third molar (BP3).

References

Carraway, L.N., 1989. A morphologic and morphometric analysis of the "Sorex vagrans species complex" in the Pacific Coast region.

Léon-Tapia, M.Á., Fernández, J.A., Rico, Y., Cervantes, F.A. and Espinosa de los Monteros, A., 2020. A new mouse of the Peromyscus maniculatus species complex (Cricetidae) from the highlands of central Mexico. Journal of Mammalogy, 101(4), pp.1117-1132.

Richards, R.L., 1982, January. Quarternary Records of the Pygmy and Smoky Shrews from South-central Indiana Caves. In Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science (Vol. 92, pp. 507-522).