Sexual size dimorphism in genus triturus rafinesque, 1815 (amphibia: Salamandridae) in bulgaria—preliminary results

Abstract

We studied a sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in three species from the genus Triturus. We used fifteen body measures for calculating the SSD. We performed the multivariate SSD index to calculate the dimorphism in overall body size. We found a well express female-biased SSD in T. karelinii, and male-biased in T. macedonicus. In T. cristatus we also found a male-biased SSD but weakly pronounced. In general SSD possess similar values but is express by different traits. The tendencies of displaying the sexual dimorphism in all the species are also similar. It is still not clear which factors affect the sexual dimorphism in newts. © 2009 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.