Diversity of muskox Ovibos moschatus (Zimmerman, 1780) (Bovidae, Mammalia) in time and space based on cranial morphometry

ABSTRACT

Muskox Ovibos moschatus is a Pleistocene relic, which has survived only in North America and Greenland. During the Pleistocene, it was widely distributed in Eurasia and North America. To evaluate its morphological variability through time and space, we conducted an extensive morphometric study of 217 Praeovibos and Ovibos skull remains. The analyses showed that the skulls grew progressively wider from Praeovibos sp. to the Pleistocene O. moschatus, while from the Pleistocene to the recent O. moschatus, the facial regions of the skull turned narrower and shorter. We also noticed significant geographic differences between the various Pleistocene Ovibos crania. Siberian skulls were usually larger than those from Western and Central Europe. Eastern European muskoxen also exceeded in size those from the other regions of Europe. The large size of Late Pleistocene muskoxen from regions located in more continental climatic regimes was probably associated with the presence of more suitable food resources in steppe-tundra settings. Consistently, radiocarbon-dated records of this species are more numerous in colder periods, when the steppe-tundra was widely spread, and less abundant in warmer periods.

KEYWORDS:

• Praeovibos
• Ovibos moschatus
• skull
• Pleistocene
• radiocarbon dating
• morphometry

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the subsidy for the Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Wrocław, No. 0410/2990/18. Field studies in Poland and radicarbon dating were supported by the National Science Centre, Poland under the grants: NCN 2014/15/B/HS3/02472 “Site formation processes at Palaeolithic cave sites – a multifaceted analysis of cultural levels in Pleistocene cave sediments (on the basis of the middle part of the Polish Jura)”; NCN 2014/15/D/HS3/01302 “Hunter-gatherer communities of the younger part of the Last Glaciation and Early Holocene in the middle part of Polish Jura – chronology, cultures and significance of the southern part of Ryczów Upland”; NCN 2014/13/D/HS3/03842 “The use of diagenetic alterations to determine homogeneity of fossil bone assemblages from archaeological sites”. The research of Dr Gennady Boeskorov was conducted within the frameworks of the scientific project of the Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute, SB RAS No. 0381-2019-0002. The research of Dr Dmitriy Malikov was performed within the state assignment of IGM SB RAS and was funded by the SB RAS project No. 0330-2016-0017 and the RFBR project No. 18-35-00118. The study was partially carried out with the support of the program to improve the competitiveness of the Tomsk State University (scientific grant No. 8.1.48.2018). We are grateful to the Museum of the Pyzdry Land in Pyzdry for providing the sample of muskox skull from Spławie for radiocarbon dating as well as A. Szalkowski and J.J. Dudkiewicz for providing the specimen from Radziki Duże. We are very grateful to anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and remarks, which significantly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki [2014/13/D/HS3/03842,2014/15/B/HS3/02472,2014/15/D/HS3/01302];Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute [SB RAS No. 0381-2019-0002];IGM SB RAS [SB RAS No. 0330-2016-0017 and RFBR project No. 18-35-00118];Tomsk State University [No. 8.1.48.2018];Uniwersytet Wrocławski [0410/2990/18];