Epigenetic Diversity and Similarity of the Voles of "Guentheri" Group (Mammalia: Rodentia) in Anatolian Peninsula and South-Eastern Part of the Balkan Peninsula

This study analyzed variations of four vole taxa from Anatolia and Southeastern Balkan Peninsula, i.e. Microtus guentheri guentheri, Microtus lydius lydius, Microtus lydius ankaraensis and Microtus hartingi strandzensis, on the basis of 32 qualitative non-metric skull characters. The degree of polymorphism was analyzed by computing the Epigenetic Variability (Vi). The epigenetic divergence among each single studied taxon from the remaining taxa was evaluated by Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD). The recorded epigenetic polymorphism of the studied taxa (i) demonstrated the well expressed similarity between the two subspecies of M. lydius, (ii) confirmed the differentiation between M. h. strandzensis and M. g. guentheri and (iii) revealed the greater similarity between M. g. guentheri and the two subspecies of M. lydius than between M. g. guentheri and M. h. strandzensis.