Morphological variation of Mountain Blackeye (Chlorocharis emiliae) populations in Malaysian Borneo

Mohamad Fizl Sidq, Ramji and Mustafa Abdul, Rahman and Andrew Alek, Tuen (2012) Morphological variation of Mountain Blackeye (Chlorocharis emiliae) populations in Malaysian Borneo. Malaysian Applied Biology, 41. pp. 1-10.

[img]
Preview
PDF
Morphological variation of Mountain Blackeye (Chlorocharis emiliae) populations in Malaysian Borneo.pdf

Download (148kB) | Preview
Official URL: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_...

Abstract

The mountain blackeye (Chlorocharis emiliae) is one of the few Bornean endemic birds which presents an excellent model species to illustrate evolution and speciation. Here, we use discriminant function analysis to elucidate the morphological variation on 40 specimens of mountain blackeye from four populations namely Mount Kinabalu, Mount Trus Madi, Mount Murud and Mount Mulu. The test successfully distinguished all four populations accordingly by respective nominated subspecies. Tarsus length and bill length were identified as the best predictors from nine character loadings observed which also included bill depth, bill width, head bill, wing length, wing span, tail length and total length. Along with this, the morphological patterns also revealed that solid skeletal characters such as bill length, bill depth, bill width and tarsus are genuine predictors of morphological variation and body size within species as compared to feather-based characters. The evolution of such morphological traits is more pronounced due to different ecological adaptation of the mountain blackeye populations. Several factors such as phenotypic plasticity, foraging behaviours and food availability may have influenced the morphological variation between the subspecies.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: character loading , evolution, foraging behaviours, morphological variation, phenotypic plasticity, subspecies , unimas, university, universiti, Borneo, Malaysia, Sarawak, samarahan, ipta, education, kuching, research, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Subjects: Q Science > QL Zoology
Divisions: Academic Faculties, Institutes and Centres > Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation
Faculties, Institutes, Centres > Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation
Depositing User: Karen Kornalius
Date Deposited: 21 Apr 2015 07:59
Last Modified: 21 Apr 2015 07:59
URI: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/7013

Actions (For repository members only: login required)

View Item View Item