Weights and linear dimensions of the skull and some of the long bones of the skunk (Mephitis mesomelas avia)

✍ Scribed by Homer B. Latimer

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1937
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 677 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0362-2525
• DOI: 10.1002/jmor.1050600205

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The skull, mandible, atlas, scapula and the six long bones from seventy‐four male and sixty‐nine female skunk skeletons were weighed. Nine dimensions of the skull, two dimensions of the mandible and of the scapula, the length of the os coxa and the lengths of the same six long bones, were measured from 99 male and 109 female skeletons.

The weights of the skull and of the nine bones are significantly heavier in the male skunks and all but one of the linear measurements are likewise significantly greater in the males. The weights and the linear dimensions of the skull and the mandible are more variable in the males but the lengths of the long bones are more variable in the females.

The rather high positive correlations of the skull weight and the weights of the other parts of the skeleton studied, show that the weight of the skull is a good criterion of the weights of the other bones. These correlations are slightly higher in the males. The nineteen linear dimensions are likewise well correlated with the skull length. They average somewhat higher in the females.

The data on the symmetry of the paired bones are not very conclusive, but there is a preponderance of heavier and longer right bones and a crossed symmetry is suggested.