Osteometric study of the Rasquera White goat

Figures & data

Figure 1. Picture of an adult female Rasquera White goat (photo: Pere-Miquel Parés).

Table 1. Studied parameters (nomenclature according to Von den Driesch 1976).

Parameter	Definition
1	Total length of the skull: the distance between akrokranion-prosthion
2	Condylobasal length: caudal border of occipital condyles-prosthion
3	Total length of the cranial base: basion-prosthion
4	Short skull length: basion-premolare
5	Premolare-prosthion length
6	Neurocranium length: basion-nasion
7	Upper length of the viscerocranium: nasion-prosthion
8	Median frontal length: akrokranion-nasion
9	Akrokranion-bregma length
10	Frontal length: bregma-nasion
11	Upper neurocranium length: akrokranion-supraorbitale
12	Facial length: supraorbitale-prosthion
13	Akrokranion-infraorbitale length
14	Greatest length of the lacrimal bone: most lateral point of the lacrimal bone–most rostral point of the lacrimomaxillary suture
15	Greatest length of the nasal bone: nasion-rhinion
16	Entorbitale-prosthion length
17	Distance between the caudal border of one occipital condyle and the infraorbitale of the same side
18	Dental length: postdentale-prosthion
19	Oral palatal length: palatinoorale-prosthion
20	Lateral length of the premaxilla: nasointermaxillare-prosthion
21	Length of the maxillary tooth row
22	Length of the upper molar row
23	Length of the upper premolar row
24	Greatest inner width of the orbit: ectorbitale-entorbitale
25	Greatest inner height of the orbit
27	Greatest breadth of the occipital condyles
28	Greatest breadth at the bases of the paracondylar processes
29	Greatest breadth of the foramen magnum
30	Heigth of the foramen magnum: basion-opisthion
31	Least breadth of parietal
33	Greatest neurocranium breadth: euryon-euryon
34	Greatest frontal breadth: ectorbitale-ectorbitale
35	Least breadth between the orbits: entorbitale-entorbitale
36	Facial breadth: between facial tuberosities
37	Greatest breadth across the nasal bones
38	Greatest breadth across the premaxilla
39	Greatest palatal breadth

Table 2. Basic descriptive statistics (linear measurements) (n=70).

Measurement	X (mm)	DE	CV (%)	Min (mm)	Max (mm)
1. Total length of the skull	231.7	11.01	4.7	216.0	243.0
2. Condylobasal length	225.1	8.73	3.8	213.0	235.0
3. Total length of the cranial base	209.3	5.16	2.4	200.0	215.0
4. Short skull length	145.6	8.96	6.1	111.0	163.0
5. Premolare-prosthion length	58.3	1.37	2.3	56.0	59.8
6. Neurocranium length	129.3	8.87	6.8	115.0	147.0
7. Upper length of the viscerocranium	137.7	4.01	2.9	129.4	141.0
8. Median frontal length	126.2	6.77	5.3	112.3	146.0
9. Akrokranion-bregma length	58.4	4.11	7.0	50.5	72.5
10. Frontal length	77.6	4.14	5.3	70.6	88.0
11. Upper neurocranium length	118.9	6.81	5.7	105.5	134.7
12. Facial length	153.6	7.22	4.7	140.4	164.0
13. Akrokranion-infraorbitale of one side	162.2	8.81	5.4	139.2	188.0
14. Greatest length of the lacrimal bone	41.2	4.58	11.1	28.6	50.5
15. Greatest length of the nasal bone	79.5	6.61	8.3	64.8	95.1
16. Entorbitale-prosthion length	137.0	11.34	8.2	120.0	151.7
17. Distance between occipital condyle-infraorbitale	155.6	8.14	5.2	139.0	184.0
18. Dental length	122.0	5.81	4.7	113.5	129.7
19. Oral palatal length	96.0	3.06	3.1	91.1	101.0
20. Lateral length of the premaxilla	86.2	7.12	8.2	73.0	93.0
21. Length of the maxillary tooth row	67.9	4.41	6.4	59.2	79.5
22. Length of the upper molar row	45.3	3.59	7.9	32.0	52.7
23. Length of the upper premolar row	25.3	3.69	14.6	20.0	37.0
24. Greatest inner width of the orbit	38.8	2.37	6.1	34.0	45.1
25. Greatest inner height of the orbit	35.8	2.45	6.8	26.5	42.0
27. Greatest breadth of the occipital condyles	53.3	4.07	7.6	45.4	65.5
28. Greatest breadth at the bases of the paracondylar processes	77.1	6.49	8.4	56.5	89.0
29. Greatest breadth of the foramen magnum	20.0	2.00	10.0	15.7	26.4
30. Heigth of the foramen magnum	17.5	1.30	7.4	15.4	22.1
31. Least breadth of parietal	27.5	3.20	11.6	20.0	35.4
33. Greatest neurocranium breadth	69.7	3.58	5.1	61.5	79.7
34. Greatest frontal breadth	114.5	8.07	7.0	97.5	132.0
35. Least breadth between the orbits	86.5	6.46	7.4	72.3	102.0
36. Facial breadth	76.7	4.85	6.3	63.0	87.9
37. Greatest breadth across the nasals	32.7	3.05	9.3	25.2	38.2
38. Greatest breadth across the premaxilla	41.5	4.19	10.1	34.5	49.6
39. Greatest palatal breadth	68.7	4.55	6.6	57.8	78.0

X, mean (mm); DE, standard deviation; CV, coefficient of variation (%); Min, minimum value (mm); Max, maximum value (mm).

Table 3. Basic descriptive statistics (indexes of all samples; n=70).

	X	DE	CV (%)	Minimum	Maximum
Skull/cephalic index	46.2%	2.78	6.0	46.2%	53.7%
Cranial index	42.1%	3.11	7.4	42.1%	65.1%
Area of the foramen magnum	195.6 mm^2	40.50	20.7	195.6 mm^2	407.0 mm^2
Foramen magnum index	71.7%	8.90	12.4	71.7%	109.7%
Orbital index	87.2%	11.20	12.9	87.2%	149.5%
Orbital area	821.3 mm^2	90.87	11.1	821.3 mm^2	1.384.2 mm^2
Facial index	50.3%	2.03	4.0	50.3%	56.3%
Frontal index	92.9%	7.89	8.5	92.9%	126.0%
Nasal index	30.5%	4.07	13.3	30.5%	47.9%
Index 1	25.9%	1.94	7.5	25.9%	31.7%
Index 2	29.0%	2.00	6.9	29.0%	35.1%

X, mean (mm); DE, standard deviation; CV, coefficient of variation (%); Min, minimum value (mm); Max, maximum value (mm).

Figure 3. PCA scatter diagram (95% ellipse). Each dot represents the measurement number as referred in Table 1.

Figure 4. Plot of Principal Component 1 versus Principal Component 2. Each dot represents an individual skull.

Figure 5. Bivariate plot of length of the maxillary tooth row (variable 21) and Least breadth between the orbits (variable 35). Parameter estimates are α (slope)=−0.388, β (intercept)=113.8, and R²=0.087. Each dot represents an individual skull.

Table 4. Multivariate statistics. The PCA is extracted from the co-variance matrix.

Variable	Principal component 1	Principal component 2
1	3.387	−1.344
2	3.081	0.796
3	2.475	0.529
4	0.192	0.377
5	0.041	2.217
6	0.125	0.360
7	0.545	0.400
8	0.211	0.542
9	0.698	0.954
10	0.695	1.240
11	0.382	0.992
12	0.871	0.417
13	0.527	1.285
14	0.525	0.144
15	0.527	0.383
16	0.558	0.698
17	0.375	0.873
18	0.318	1.052
19	0.039	1.483
20	0.010	1.660
21	0.680	0.954
22	0.592	0.226
23	0.399	0.777
24	0.561	0.042
25	0.537	0.081
27	0.664	0.701
28	0.650	1.022
29	0.343	1.058
30	0.300	1.269
31	0.469	0.406
33	0.731	1.295
34	0.434	1.120
35	0.625	1.136
36	0.701	1.278
37	0.430	0.670
38	0.337	1.165
39	0.702	1.116
Eigenval.	130,884,000.0	1,141,400.0
% variance	98.66	0.86

Eigenval.: eigenvalue or proper value (i.e. the factor by which the eigenvector changes when multiplied by the vector). The loadings (i.e. the weights for each original variable) with absolute highest values are in bold.