The present study revisited the controversial taxonomic status of
Petaurista yunanensis
,
P. philippensis
,
P.
hainana
, and
P. petaurista
by using a considerably extended set of morphometrical characters (26 cranial variables from
60 adult specimen skulls). The results revealed no sexual dimorphism in any of the four species but confirmed significant
craniometric differences among the four species in both the principal components analysis (PCA) and discriminant
function analysis (DFA), with the greatest distinction observed between
P. petaurista and other
Petaurista species. Both
univariate and multivariate analysis indicated that the morphological differences between
P. yunanensis and
P.
philippensis were less than that between
P. philippensis and
P. hainana. The morphometric results were concordant in
geographic patterns with mtDNA data from previous studies and indicated that
P. petaurista,
P. hainana,
P. philippensis,
and
P. yunanensis could be recognized as valid species.
