- Titre du projet
- Rediscovering the Niata: A morphometric and genetic approach
- Descriptif du projet
- Several species of the genus Bos have been domesticated: Bos primigenius, Bos javanicus, Bos gaurus and Bos mutus (Felius 1995). The ancestor species of the most common cattle is Bos primigenius. The first cattle to reach the Americas are from an Iberian stock and subsequently were of taurine origin. These arrived on the second voyage of Columbus on the island of Hispaniola in 1493 in the Caribbean. Additional imports and rapid reproduction of cattle made it unnecessary to import them after 1512 (McTavish et al. 2013). These cattle were the ancestors of the Niata breed, a bulldog-snouted breed, once common in Argentina and Uruguay. The Niata was described by Darwin and believed that the Niata would suffer more during droughts than other breeds due to the constraints the skull morphology could have on acquiring browse when grass is scarce. To investigate this claim and to elucidate the breed in general several methods are used. The cranial shape is analyzed using 3D geometric morphometrics, the relationship of this breed is clarified using a molecular approach, the sensory systems are investigated via CT scans, and the skull and lower jaw mechanics are investigated with a finite element analysis.
Travaux réalisés par la plateforme AST-RX
