MORPHOLOGY AND MORPHOMETRY OF SKULLS OF RACCOON DOGS, NYCTEREUTES PROCYONOIDES AND BADGERS, MELES-MELES

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.