Cranial variation in the European badgerMeles meles(Carnivora, Mustelidae) in Scandinavia

Morphometric variation in 30 craniometric characters of 465 skulls of the European badgers (Meles meles) from across Europe was analysed. Multivariate analyses revealed that the populations from Norway, Sweden, and Finland differ from other European populations in having smaller skulls. The analyses also revealed significant differences between the 'south-western Norwegian' and 'main Fennoscandian' forms. On average, badgers from south-west Norway were smaller than those of the remaining Fennoscandia. Morphological differences between the 'south-western Norwegian' and 'main Fennoscandian' populations of M. meles suggest a possible in situ semisympatric divergence since the beginning of the Holocene warming, or a complex history of two groups involving at least two colonization routes. The small-sized Scandinavian badgers may be close to the ancestral form that used to be widespread in Denmark and throughout Europe. The animals from south-west Norway may instead be descendants of ancestors that were the first to penetrate the southern parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The 'main Fennoscandian' badgers are likely to have been the descendants of the second wave of recolonization of Scandinavia. Specifically, they might have colonized the Scandinavian Peninsula from the east after the last glaciation.