Luis Felipe Andrietti

Abstract

The local fauna characterization has been increasingly important in studies of basic and applied ecology, conservation, management and restauration, extinction risk assessments, etc... since it provides more effective data of the relations of the occorring species with the environmental characteristics. Allied to this, the knowledge of the complex patterns of distribution and occurrence of small mammals in Atlantic Forest is still very incipient. In this sense, the present study made captures of small terrestrial mammals in five fragments of western region of Paraná, Brazil, with the aim of characterizing the fauna using three techniques: external and cranial morphometry, cytogenetics and trichology. Ninety eight individuals belonging to seven species of rodents and two species of marsupials were captured. The rodent species were Akodon montensis, Oligoryzomys nigripes, Oligoryzomys flavescens, Euryoryzomys russatus, Thaptomys nigrita and Juliomys pictipes. The marsupials species were Monodelphis dimidiata and Marmosa paraguayana. There were records of chromossomal and morphometry variations for the species Akodon montensis and Marmosa paraguayana. In addition, the first description of the trichological patterns of Monodelphis dimidiata and Oligoryzomys flavescens was made here.