S. Hidaka et al., MORPHOLOGY AND MORPHOMETRY OF SKULLS OF RACCOON DOGS, NYCTEREUTES PROCYONOIDES AND BADGERS, MELES-MELES, Journal of veterinary medical science, 60(2), 1998, pp. 161-167
In order to obtain the basic data to identify the skeletal remains fro
m the archaeological sites, morphological and morphometrical studies w
ere carried out on skulls of living raccoon dogs (35 males and 45 fema
les) and badgers (16 males and 8 females) from Kagoshima Prefecture. M
acroscopically, the sexual differences were observed in badgers for th
e parts of the zygomatic process of the temporal bone and the occipita
l squama, but were not in raccoon dogs. Among 24 cranial measurements,
significant sexual differences were found in five measurement items i
n raccoon dogs, while 12 items in badgers. Mandibles showed significan
t sexual differences in both species. Raccoon dogs had significantly l
arger values than badgers in most of the items concerning length of cr
anium and most mandibular measurements. The discrimination efficiencie
s of discriminant formulae between both sexes were lower in raccoon do
gs, but higher in badgers, and the efficiencies between both species w
ere obtained 100%. In the regression formulae for estimating skull len
gth, some formulae showed high coefficients of determination in both s
pecies. These observations represented interspecific and sexual differ
ences in the skulls of raccoon dogs and badgers.