The impact of extreme skull morphology in domestic dogs on cribriform plate shape.

In this study, we CT scanned the skulls of 95 dog specimens from 45 different domestic dog breeds and 12 species of wild canid and compared the shape of the cribriform plate among three main groups: domestic dog breeds, wolf-like canids, and fox-like canids. Despite only recent selective pressure for extreme skull morphology, domestic dogs display much more variation in cribriform plate shape than wild canids, indicating that cribriform plate shape is plastic and linked to skull shape. Intense artificial selection on domestic dog skull phenotype in the last 200 years has clear effects on secondary features of the domestic dog skull, implying that selection for overt phenotypes also can impact other anatomical features associated with the skull, like the cribriform plate.
PMID: 33000502 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Anatomical Record - September 29, 2020 Category: Anatomy Authors: Jacquemetton C, Drexler A, Kellerman G, Bird D, Van Valkenburgh B Tags: Anat Rec (Hoboken) Source Type: research