SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND GEOGRAPHICAL VARIAB ILITY OF REINDEER (RANGIFER-TARANDUS L, 1758) OF THE PALEARCTIC (CRANIOMETRICAL CHARACTERISTICS)

A comparative craniometrical study of reindeers of the Palearctic has been carried out. Three groups of population have been identified on t he basis of complex mathematical analysis, which can be considered as subspecies: Rangifer tarandus tarandus L., 1758; R. t. sibiricus Murra y, 1866, and R. t. phylarchus Hollister, 1912. No sufficient reasons h ave been found for isolation of R. t. valentinae Flerov, 1933 and R. t . angustriostris Flerov, 1932. The Ural mountains appear to serve a ge ographic barrier providing a relative isolation of the European and Si berian reindeers, while the range of the latter is limited by a system of mountain ridges extending from the Baikal lake to the Chukotka pen insula.