Cluster analysis of fruit bats (family : pteropodidae) in Borneo, using Morphometric parameters

Siti Mariam, Jamaluddin (2007) Cluster analysis of fruit bats (family : pteropodidae) in Borneo, using Morphometric parameters. [Final Year Project Report / IMRAD] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Megachiroptera or fruit bats subsist on fruit, flower, pollen and nectar and they also important as pollinators or seed dispersers in tropical rain forest. This morphometric study aimed to investigate the interrelationship of family Pteropodidae by constructing a dendrogram and also make comparison with phylogenetic tree using molecular studies. Five external morphological features namely forearm, ear, tibia, tail and weight for 14 species from Bornean fruit bats were collected from UNIMAS zoological museum. Multivariate procedures were used to analyze the data including Discriminant Function Analysis (OF A), Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA) and Cluster Analysis (CA). Based on OFA, forearm, tail and weight have higher character loading where these characters can be used as diagnostic characters in distinguishing the species. This study showed the species had unclear separations but there were grouping of multispecies based on sizes were observed in CDA. Upon further analysis, morphometric cluster analysis using UPGMA produced a dendrogram where all species were unsuccessfully discriminated and there were overlapping between subfamilies Pteropodinae and Macroglossinae. The dendrogram also were performed separately for subfamilies and subgroups. The dendrogram also support certain species positioning in phylogenetic tree by molecular studies.

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