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Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2 |
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
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