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0187 Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2
Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2 / Page 187 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000178
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

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CAVICORNIA.

377

Table of dimensions (in millimeters).

This apparent resemblance does not, however, permit us to assume a relationship to one of these forms, for it is readily seen from my former investigations into the influence of horns upon the shaping* of the skull, that the absence of horns produces uniform characteristics and that while considerable variance may exist in the absolute craniological dimensions, the relative dimensions always remain the same. Now, what can this hornless sheep form be, and whence can it have come? The bone remains give us no information on these points; and we must, therefore, resort to deduction and inference.

Let us first examine the recent races of sheep of Turkestan. The Central Asiatic steppes harbor only two races of sheep, which are generally designated :

(a) The fat-buttocked sheep (Ovis aries steatopyga Fitz) ; (b) the fat-tailed sheep (Ovis aries platyura Fitz).

Ovis aries steatopyga is characterized by a posterior overloaded with fat, which on the buttocks projects upward in the form of a fatty protuberance which is split in the middle. The ram of this breed has horns of medium length which are thick and strong at the root and grow narrower towards the blunt point. The horns, without rising above the crown of the head, form, in winding, a double snail-shaped revolution back, down, and forwards. In the ewes and the wethers the horns are smaller and weaker, and curved only backwards and forwards. There occur at times four-horned and even five-horned rams in this race of sheep; and, on the other hand, we find here and there hornless females.

*Experimentelle Studien ueber die Morphogenie des Schaedels der Cavicornia. Vierteljahresschrift d. Naturf. Gesell. Zürich, Jahrg. 1903, p. 360.

Ovis aries, recent specimen.

Skull.

Anati, +34 ft.

Gas- cogne.

Ireland.

Greatest length of base, ca   

Lateral length of frontal (bregma to orbita) ....

Length of molars of upper maxilla   

Length of premolars   

Sagittal length of frontal bones   

Parietal height   

Parietal width   

Greatest height of skull   

Greatest height of occiput   

Least height of same   

Greatest width of occiput   

Least width of same   

Least width of front   

Greatest width of same   

Distance between orbitals   

Width of palate behind molar I   

Width of palate in front of premolar I   

185

57 35 26 82

3o

59

87

52

37

65

42

65

I04

48

29

108

75

39

27

39 2I

76

52

190 63 45 2I 8o 27

61

86

52

38

66

43

66

109

71

45

23

214

8o

48

25

92 35 71 I04

59

43

76

55

68

119

77

58

26

2I2

74

43

19

92

32

53

72

48

33

67

44

63 I17

76
5o

32

197 75 44 19 82

32

65

78

48

29

67

41

69

I19

77

52

23