Why the long face? Comparative shape analysis of miniature, pony, and other horse skulls reveals changes in ontogenetic growth.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Much of the shape variation found in animals is based on allometry and heterochrony. Horses represent an excellent model to investigate patterns of size-shape variation among breeds that were intentionally bred for extreme small and large sizes.

Methods

We tested whether ponies (wither height < 148 cm) have a diverging size-shape relationship in skull shape as compared to regular-sized horse breeds (wither height > 148 cm, here-after called horses) during ontogenetic growth. We used a dataset of 194 specimens from 25 horse and 13 pony breeds, two of which are miniature breeds (wither height < 96.5 cm)-Falabella, Shetland. We applied three-dimensional geometric morphometrics, linear measurements, and multivariate analyses (Procrustes ANOVAs) to quantitatively exami

SUBMITTER: Heck L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6752190 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature