Salamanca-Carreño Arcesio, Jordana Jordi, Crosby-Granados Rene Alejandro, Bentez-Molano Jannet, Parés-Casanova Pere M
Grupo de Investigaciones los Araucos, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Arauca 810001, Colombia.
Department de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Apr 13;10(4):679. doi: 10.3390/ani10040679.
This is the first morphological comparative study between local horses and mules from Arauca, Colombia. It was realized to compare morphological traits between both species by analysing 15 adult mules (7 males and 8 females) and 150 adult horses (137 males and 13 females), with an age interval from 2 to 22 years. Data consisted of 24 different body quantitative traits which can explain the body conformation: thoracic circumference, body length (BL), thoracic depth and width, withers height (WH), sternum height, shoulders width, chest width, forelimb cannon perimeter and length, head length and width, skull length and width, face length and width, ear length and width, loin height, croup height (CrH), width and length, dock height (DoH), and hock height. Heart girth circumference, body length, withers height, croup height, and dock height were the most discriminative traits, showing statistical differences between species. The formula is X = (BL × 0.402) + (WH × 0.323) + (CrH × 0.352) + (DoH × 0.384). A value of X > 184.5 assigns with total certainty that a skeleton belongs to a horse, and if X < 174.0, it is a mule. The proposed formula has a 100% specificity but a 71.4% sensibility for mules and an 84.4% for horses into the rank of 174.0-184.5. Therefore, results demonstrate that some postcranial anatomical elements of could give enough information for a bone differentiation between horses and mules, at least in animals from the Araucan region, but the main interest is that it reflects the possibility to differentiate morphometrically both species from bone remains when horses and mules were sympatric.
这是哥伦比亚阿劳卡地区本地马和骡子之间的首次形态学比较研究。通过分析15匹成年骡子（7匹雄性和8匹雌性）和150匹成年马（137匹雄性和13匹雌性），年龄在2至22岁之间，来比较两个物种之间的形态特征。数据包括24种不同的身体定量特征，这些特征可以解释身体形态：胸围、体长（BL）、胸深和胸宽、鬐甲高（WH）、胸骨高、肩宽、胸宽、前肢管围和长度、头长和头宽、头骨长和宽、脸长和宽、耳长和宽、腰高、臀高（CrH）、臀宽和臀长、尾根高（DoH）以及飞节高。心围、体长、鬐甲高、臀高和尾根高是最具区分性的特征，在物种之间显示出统计学差异。公式为X =（BL×0.402）+（WH×0.323）+（CrH×0.352）+（DoH×0.384）。当X>184.5时，可以完全确定一具骨骼属于一匹马；如果X<174.0，则是一头骡子。所提出的公式对骡子具有100%的特异性，但在174.0 - 184.5范围内，对骡子的敏感性为71.4%，对马为84.4%。因此，结果表明，至少在阿劳卡地区动物中，某些颅后解剖元素能够提供足够信息用于区分马和骡子，但主要意义在于它反映了在马和骡子同域分布时，从骨骼残骸中通过形态测量学区分这两个物种的可能性。
