Relationships in red deerCervus elaphus mandibles

Abstract

2004. Relationships in red deer Cervus elaphus mandibles. Acta Theriologica 49: 527-542.Growth in mammals often implies differences in body proportions and tissue development more or less characteristic for different age periods and ontogenetic stages. Mouth morphology is an important functional trait in herbivores, as it may determine both maximal intake rate and possibly level of selectivity. An untested hypothesis is that since individual bones within the skeleton are retarded in growth and development in proportion to their growth intensity at each time interval during periods of restricted nutritional supply, this may potentially affect ultimate skeletal proportions. We analysed data on mandible proportions (anterior:total) of 62 fetuses collected at different stages of growth and 16 776 red deer Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, 1758 hinds from 0 to 26 years of age and 24026 males from 0 to 22 years of age harvested during autumns 1965-2001 along the west coast of Norway. At the fetal stage, the mandible proportion was negatively related to body weight and, therefore, declined with age of the fetus. The anterior part of the mandible was initially longer than the posterior part; the mandible proportion was between 0.75-0.8 at the fetal stage, but declined with increasing age. The relationship between mandible proportion and weight was strong for calves, but decreased with increasing age, and the relationship was almost flat when reaching 5 years of age. From 5 years, the anterior and posterior part of the mandible was approximately equal in length and this mandible proportion (0.50-0.51), which was unrelated to weight, remained stable for the rest of the life in both hinds and stags. After they were fully-grown, early conditions (cohort density and climate as measured by the North Atlantic Oscillation) had no measurable effect on ultimate mandible proportions after the effect of body weight was removed.

Hunting for ecological indicators: Are large herbivore skeleton measures from harvest data useful proxies for monitoring?

“…2). Such growth pattern corresponds to those described for many other ungulates (e.g., red deer Cervus elaphus [Bertouille & Decrombrugghe 1995, Langvatn et al 2004]; Sitka black-tailed deer Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis [Klein 1964]; roe deer Capreolus capreolus [Høye & Forchhammer 2006]). The age at which the skeleton growth reached its asymptote differed between females and males.…”

“…In addition, and importantly, access to the lower jaw provide teeth for age determination. The jaw length is also known to be a part of the skeleton that possesses the highest growth priority (Langvatn et al 2004). Therefore, we recommend the local management to prioritise hunter collection of lower jawbones from at least young individuals of both sexes (i.e., calves and individuals 1-2 years of age).…”

Body measurements from selective hunting: biometric features of red deer (Cervus elaphus) from Northern Apennine, Italy

“…Skeletal growth and ultimate size are affected both by genetic and environmental factors (Klein 1964), therefore differences in adult body size within the same species may reflect the effects of diverse habitat quality or animal density (Klein 1964;Hewison et al 1996;Pettorelli et al 2002). At a certain stage of growth, nutritional or energetic restrictions may affect more incisively organs or part of tissues with high growth priority than those which have passed or not reached yet the moment of maximum growth (Langvatn et al 2004). High availability and quality of food resources determine rapid growth in early life stages, and reduced growth in juvenile stages is not likely to be compensated in adulthood (Post et al 1997).…”

Morfometrik Pertumbuhan Rahang Bawah terkait Aktivitas Mandibula dan Umur pada Anakan Domba Merino Jantan Pascalahir

“…Peregangan terhadap tulang akan menstimulasi proses kalsifikasi dan deposisi osteoblastik pada tulang, termasuk daya kontraksi otot yang bertaut padanya. Tulang mandibula berkembang alamiah bersamaan dengan aktivitas hewan saat memenuhi tuntutan kehidupan, seperti menyusu pada anak domba pascalahir dan mulai berlatih memamah biak setelah disapih (Langvatn et al, 2004).…”

“…Demikian pula articulatio temporamandibulare serta gigi geraham yang tumbuh di tulang rahang bergerak aktif menggiling hijauan (Langvatn et al, 2004;Priyanto & Subandriyo, 2011). Langvatn et al (2004) mengamati morfometrik proporsi relatif panjang mandibula yang diukur pada periode fetus hingga rusa merah mencapai umur 5 tahun menunjukkan kecenderungan adanya penurunan dan ini sangat ditentukan oleh faktor asupan nutrisi dan aktivitas merumput. Daniel et al (2003) membuktikan bahwa struktur tulang memiliki kemampuan adaptasi yang cukup besar terhadap tekanan mekanis yang kontinyu.…”