Morphological and Craniometrical Studies on the Skull of the South Karaman Sheep

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to determine the craniometric measurements of the skull of the South Karaman sheep breed and to reveal the differences between them and other sheep breeds. The skull length was 238.37±4.18, the frontal width (ectorbitale – ectorbitale), which is the widest part of the skull was 115.75 ± 4.45. The distance between the supraorbitales was determined to be 50.01±3.94. There is a strong negative correlation between L9 (akrokranio – bregma) and L14 (greatest length of the lacrimal (most lateral point of the lacrimal – the most oral point of the lacrimo-maxillary suture) and positive correlation was found among other features. As a result, it is thought that the difference between the craniometric values of the South Karaman sheep, which are accepted as the native breeds of Turkey in the study, and other sheep breeds, depending on the skull morphology, may be due to the breed of the sheep.