Sexual dimorphism of the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) in South Korea: Craniodental geometric morphometry

Abstract

Sexual dimorphism of the craniodental morphology of the Eurasian otter in South Korea was studied with geometric morphometrics. 29 adult skulls (15 males and 14 females) were used. Images of the dorsal and ventral view of the cranium and right lateral view of the mandible were taken and then digitized, and measurements were taken on the right side. Results showed that size difference between males and females was significant. Correlations between the size and shape variations have not been observed in this study. The bivariate plots with centroid size showed size dimorphism between males and females with some overlapping. Most relative warp (RW) scores were not significantly different between males and females. We observed only RW2 for dorsal and ventral view of the skull, and only RW1 for mandible was significantly different between the sexes. Shape dimorphisms were revealed at the postorbital constriction, temporal-mandibular joint, coronoid process, mandibular condyle and angular process of the skull. Based on our study, sexual dimorphism exists in Eurasian otter from the South Korean population in terms of both the size and shape. Furthermore, the degree of size dimorphism is greater than shape dimorphism.