Morphological and karyological pecularities Spalax's (Mammalia:Rodentia) from Mardin province

VI SUMMARY Twenty-four samples (11 male, 13 female) of the species Nannospalax ehrenbergi Nehring 1898, collected from Mardin province-Turkey were studied morphologically and karyologically. Some taxonomic peculiarities and measurements of the body and skulls have been given in the text. The chromosomal analysis was performed on preparations obtained from bone marrow. The results were compared with those of the previous morphological and karyological studies on this species. Skins, skulls and preparats have been deposited at the Dicle University, Science & Art Faculty, Biology Department. The diploid number of chromosomes in all studied samples are 2n=52. The number of chromosomal arms (NF) is 76 and number of autosomes (NFa) is 72. Their karyotypes consist of 11 pairs meta-submetasentric and 14 pairs of acrosentric autosomes. The X chromosomes are large and submetasentric; Y chromosomes are small and acrosentric. When these results were compared with the previous studies, Nannospalax ehrenbergi specimens from Mardin province are found to have same with Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Şırnak, Siverek and Birecik populations while differences from Şanlıurfa, Kilis, Gaziantep and Tarsus populations for chromosom morphology. Key words: Rodent ia, Spalacidae, Nannospalax ehrenbergi, Karyotype, Morphology, Turkey.