Congruence analysis and combining of molecular genetic and morphological data in zoological systematics

Shrews (Soricidae, Eulipotyphla) from the Russian Far East and Siberia: Combination and search for congruence of molecular genetic and morphological data

“…In the previous study (Kovaleva et al, 2012), we expressed each measurement as the logarithm of its ratio to the geometric mean of all mea surement of a given individual (Mosimann, 1970;Darroch and Mosimann, 1985). It is obvious that the result of transformation remains unchanged when all measurements of an individual are multiplied by any positive constant.…”

“…The distance joining (DJ) method (Efimov and Katokhin, 2009;Kovaleva et al, 2012) makes it possi ble to combine data from different subject fields irre spective of whether these data are metric or discrete, or whether they involve large character loads (e.g., combined sequences) or integrally reflect the func tioning of major gene complexes. Thus, this method dives real opportunities for taxonomic constructions that take into account all available information on the species.…”

“…If the correlation is strong enough, it is expedient to address the problem of revealing directions in the morphometric and molecu lar spaces that correspond to each other to a maximum extent. This problem can be solved by means of partial least squares (PLS) analysis (Klingenberg and Ekau, 1996;Rohlf and Corti, 2000;Kovaleva et al, 2012).…”

“…This approach, which we name distance joining (DJ) method, is described in detail in our previous publications (Efimov and Katokhin, 2009;Kovaleva et al, 2012). In this study, it was used with aforemen tioned modifications.…”

“…(Efimov and Katokhin, 2009;Kovaleva et al, 2012). The results can be pre sented as hierarchical trees or configurations of spe cies in a multidimensional space, interpreted in phylo genetic terms.…”