Talpa fossilis or Talpa europaea? Using geometric morphometrics and allometric trajectories of humeral moles remains from Hungary to answer a taxonomic debate

Abstract

The taxonomic validity of Talpa fossilis has been subject to a longstanding debate. Talpa fossilis has been considered as a chronospecies, stratigraphic species, and finally as junior synonym of Talpa europaea. In this study, the large humeral sample of T. fossilis and T. europaea from the Plio-Pleistocene of Hungary is re-investigated using a geometric morphometrics analysis. Furthermore, the differences in the static allometric slopes under the allometric constraint hypothesis were tested. The results indicate that T. fossilis and T. europaea have significant differences in both size and shape. The allometric slopes of T. fossilis and T. europaea were found to be different, revealing that the two taxa follow different patterns of shape modification according to size. In light of this evidence, T. fossilis and T. europaea are supported as two distinct species.