On the lack of a universal pattern associated with mammalian domestication -differences in skull growth trajectories across phylogeny

SÁNCHEZ-VILLAGRA M.R.; SEGURA V.; GEIGER M.; HECK L.; VEITSCHEGGER K.; FLORES D.

La Rioja

Congreso; 4° Encuentro de Morfometría; 2017

Universidad Nacional de La Rioja

As shown in a taxonomically broad study, domestication modifies postnatal growth. Skull shape across 1128 individuals was characterized by 14 linear measurements, comparing 13 pairs of wild versus domesticated forms. Among wild forms, the boar, the wild rabbit and the wolf have the highest proportion of allometric growth, explaining in part the great morphological diversity of the domesticated forms of these species. Wild forms exhibit more isometric growth than their domesticated counterparts. Multivariate comparisons show that dogs and lamas exhibit the greatest amount of differences in trajectories with their wild counterparts. The least amount is recorded in the pig-boar, camel and horse. Bivariate analyses reveal that most domesticated forms have growth trajectories different from their respective wild counterparts with regard to the slopes (new world camelids, rabbits, dogs, horses, guinea pigs and cats). In pigs and camels slopes are sharedand intercepts are different. There is a trajectory extension in most domesticated herbivores and the contrary pattern in carnivorous forms. However, there is no single, universal and global pattern of paedomorphosis or any other kind of heterochrony behind the morphological diversification that accompanies domestication.