Boos A, Hässig M, Bartels T
Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Vetsuisse-Faculty, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 260, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Ann Anat. 2005 Jul;187(3):297-303. doi: 10.1016/j.aanat.2005.01.005.
Osteological characteristics are often used to identify animal species. In this regard it is believed that the corpus fibulae of the sheep is represented by a tight cord of connective tissue--the so-called "ligamentum fibulare". The results of the present morphometric study indicate, however, that in 67% of the fetuses, 61% of the lambs or 48% of the adult sheep out of the 160 examined animals, the corpus fibulae is represented by a pin-shaped flattened piece of bone. The length of the corpus fibulae increases with age and varies greatly between individuals but in lambs and adult animals its centre is located close to the border between the proximal and intermediate third of the tibia (distal type) or closely attached to the caput fibulae by connective tissue fibres (proximal type). The cartilaginous fetal anlage is either transformed to bone or catabolised during fetal life. Desmal ossification should play an important role in the growth of the corpus fibulae since no cartilage could be detected in juvenile and adult sheep. Since there are many similarities in the expression of the corpus fibulae between sheep, goat and fallow deer, this osteological characteristic may not be used for a rapid specific and simple animal species identification procedure.
骨骼特征常被用于识别动物物种。在这方面，人们认为绵羊的腓骨体由一条紧密的结缔组织索——即所谓的“腓侧韧带”所代表。然而，本次形态计量学研究结果表明，在160只被检查动物中，67%的胎儿、61%的羔羊或48%的成年绵羊，其腓骨体由一块针状扁平骨片所代表。腓骨体的长度随年龄增长，个体间差异很大，但在羔羊和成年动物中，其中心位于靠近胫骨近端和中间三分之一交界处（远端型），或通过结缔组织纤维紧密附着于腓骨头（近端型）。胎儿期的软骨原基在胎儿期要么转化为骨，要么被分解代谢。由于在幼年和成年绵羊中未检测到软骨，膜内成骨在腓骨体的生长中应起重要作用。由于绵羊、山羊和黇鹿在腓骨体的表现上有许多相似之处，这种骨骼特征可能不适用于快速、特异且简单的动物物种鉴定程序。
