Beyond the carapace: skull shape variation and morphological systematics of long-nosed armadillos (genus Dasypus)

BACKGROUND: The systematics of long-nosed armadillos (genus Dasypus) has been mainly based on a handful of external morphological characters and classical measurements. Here, we studied the pattern of morphological variation in the skull of long-nosed armadillos species, with a focus on the systematics of the widely distributed nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus). METHODS: We present the first exhaustive 3D comparison of the skull …