3.5. Morphological comparison of M. cf. alcathoe

The bats of lineage IV, named M. cf. alcathoe by Gazarân (2009), were shown by the genetic analysis to be the closest relatives of the European populations of M. alcathoe s.str. (lineage III); the uncorrected genetic distance between these two lineages was relatively small (see above). However, morphometric comparison of the available museum material belonging to these two lineages indicated almost identical morphotypes in both sets (Tables 2–4). The Caucasian specimens of M. cf. alcathoe were very similar to the specimens of M. alcathoe from Europe in the prevailing majority of metric parameters; the analysis of variance revealed only a few dimensions in which these two specimen sets showed statistically significant differences (Table 4). Most of the significant differences were found in the skull and rostrum widths (P <0.007: CC, CC /LCr, CC / CM 3; P <0.05: LaZ, LaI, LaN), in the relative height of the coronoid process (P <0.002: ACo/ LMd), in the tooth-row lengths (P <0.001: M 1 M 2; P <0.05: P 4 M 3, IM 3, P 4 M 3, CP 4 /M 1 M 3), or in the thumb length (P <0.05: LPol). No significant differences were found in the dental dimensions (except P 4 width and the upper molar metaloph massiveness) and their indices.