Information theoretical modeling of epigenetic dental character variation in hares (Lepus europaeus) from Türkiye: microphylogeographic or climatic effects?

Abstract The external phenotypic variation of brown hares ( Lepus europaeus ) from Türkiye could represent climate-related adaptation, despite low neutral population genetic differentiation. Here, we investigated whether minor occlusal character variation of brown hares, previously used in phylogenetic or phylogeographic contexts in hare species, exhibit phylogenetic or ecogenetic variation in Türkiye, i.e., whether it corresponds to neutral population differentiation or climate variation in Türkiye. We used multi-model inference, i.e., model ranking and model averaging for binary coded occlusal traits to distinguish possible phylogenetic (neutral population genetic) from ecogenetic (climatic) effects. Our logistic models revealed a few statistically important phylogenetic and ecogenetic signals, taking into account sex, age category, skull size, and geographic coordinates of sample location. All of the latter explanatory factors/variables also showed some effects on character variation, independent of population genetic and climate effects. This could be due to a developmental (ontogenetic) background of occlusal character variation. Our calculations of pairwise phenetic distances, i.e., C.A.B. Smith´s Mean Measures of Divergence (MMD) between populations were similarly low or non-significant as previously studied microsatellite-based genetic differentiation between populations. Notably, the MMD values were based on only three occlusal characters, the only ones that showed significant variation between at least two populations. Importantly, unlike the traditional MMD calculation, our character modeling was not limited by the lack of significant spatial variation in occlusal characters; moreover, it considered all explanatory factors that were of interest simultaneously, when testing phylogenetic or ecogenetic character causation.