this study investigates skull variation in persian jird, meriones persicus (blanford, 1875) in relation to the geoclimatical conditions across its distribution range. the pattern of correlations between geoclimatical variables and geometric shape descriptors for 221 ventral crania was studied by landmark-based geometric morphometric techniques. the covariation between shape and geoclimatical va...

Metadon persicus Gilasian & Reemer sp. nov. is described, based on a single female specimen from the Zagros mountains in Iran. Morphological variation among the members of the genus Metadon Reemer and their distribution in the world are discussed. Photographs of the new species are provided. The subfamily Microdontinae represents a new taxon for southwestern Asia and the genus Metadon is report...

background: the objectives of our research were to search for leishmania species in rodents in fars province, south of iran, and to compare molecular with conventional methods for detecting these para-sites. methods: rodents were captured using live traps and screened for leishmania species using molecular and conventional methods, including the taking of smears from each ear. nested pcr was em...

the characteristics of tympanic bullae have adaptation value. based on the recent studies in the genus meriones; meatus is the only part of tympanic bullae which has a taxonomic value. in this study, we examined interspecific changes of tympanic bullae in three species of this genus and also the relation of these changes to the climatic conditions of the regions was studied in two species. thre...

ectoparasites of various species of rodents were examined from sarepole zehab, kermanshah province iran during 2005. this city is bordered with iraq. a total of 139 rodents included 6 species of hosts were captured during all different seasons and examined for ectoparasites using live trap. the area of study was mainly plateu (70%) and mountanous. the hosts including: microtus socialis, mus mus...