OSTEOMETRIC STUDY OF THE METAPODIALS OF AMSTERDAM ISLAND FERAL CATTLE

The analysis of fossil and sub-fossil bones of wild Bos primigenius Bo janus, 1827 and domestic cattle Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 has been han dicapped by the absence of modern comparative material. The feral catt le of Amsterdam Island have lived in the wild since 1871 and have been free from artificial selection since that period. We give here a comp lete description of metapodial bones of this population in order to of fer archaeologists a modern comparative material with patterns of sexu al dimorphism and extent of intra- and inter-individual variability. T his work is based on the measurements of 90 sets of 4 metapodials belo nging to 48 adult females and 42 adult males. We show that the cattle of Amsterdam Island are morphologically homogeneous, thus probably for ming a single breed. Sexual dimorphism is important and was studied by univariate comparisons and ordination techniques. A discriminant anal ysis revealed that differences in depth of diaphysis alone could corre ctly classify 96.7% of individuals as far as metacarpal bones are conc erned, whereas differences in breath of distal end alone could correct ly classify 91.1% of individuals when metatarsal bones were measured. Inclusion of two more variables increased the accuracy to 98.8% and 97 .8% of individuals correctly classified for metacarpal and metatarsal bones, respectively. Allometric relations within sexes are described a nd should prove to be usefull to archaelogists who work with fragmenta ry material and wish to estimate lacking measurements. Comparisons of size and shape of metapodial bones with data from the literature revea l that the feral cattle of Amsterdam Island are smaller than aurochs a nd recent breeds of domestic cattle, but that they compare well with o ld breeds of domestic cattle and also recent breeds of Bos indicus liv ing in Africa.