Basicranial axis length v. skull length in analysis of carnivore skull shape |
| |
Authors: | LEONARD B RADINSKY |
| |
Institution: | Anatomy Department, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, U.S.A. |
| |
Abstract: | Skull length is the measurement most commonly used as a standard against which other aspects of cranial morphology are compared to derive an index of relative size or proportions. However, skull length is composed of two different functional components, facial skull and cerebral skull, which vary independently and have different scaling relationships with body size. An analysis of carnivore skull shape with measurements standardized against basicranium length produced very different results than an analysis using skull length as the standard. For example, expressions of relative size of cranial measurements were reduced by 13% in mustelids and increased by 20% in canids, reflecting removal of jaw length (short in mustelids and long in canids) from the comparative standard (basicranial axis length). Cranial measurements scale with higher allometric exponents against basicranial axis length than against skull length. |
| |
Keywords: | Carnivora skulls morphometries allometry |
|
|