Veterinar, Vol. 60. No. 1., 2022.
Original scientific paper
Postnatal Ossification of Cranial Bones in the Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) from the Adriatic Sea
Toni Maleš
orcid.org/0000-0001-8638-5551
; Veterinarska praksa SplitVet. Split, Croatia.
Kim Korpes
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Tomislav Gomerčić
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Martina Đuras
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Adriatic Sea is inhabited by a bottlenose dolphin population (Tursiops truncatus), which is considered endangered and legally protected. Skull morphology plays a vital role in research into wild and protected animals because it deals with biological characteristics such as species, population, sex, and age. As a result of adaptation to life in water, whales have undergone numerous morphological changes during evolution. In the area of their skull, there is asymmetry and telescopic growth, which includes the elongation of the rostral bones and dorsorostral movement of the cranial bones. To gain insight into the growth of such skulls, we examined the ossification stages of joints in 25 skulls of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from the Adriatic Sea, kept in the collection of the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb. It was noted that some of the joints in the neurocranial area had been ossified since the birth of the bottlenose dolphin, and most of the remaining joints had begun to ossify after birth. Joints on the base of the skull have the fastest rate of ossification, which means that the closure of the ventral braincase takes place before the closure of the dorsal braincase. Joints in female specimens seem to ossify faster, suggesting that female dolphins end their physical growth earlier than males.
Keywords
Tursiops truncatus; skull; joints of the head; suturae capitis; ossification
Hrčak ID:
284808
URI
Publication date:
20.9.2022.
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