Yes; the little supraorbital dent is a good character, the even more
significant structural reasons for which are discussed in detail by
Tedford et al. in the dog paper from the AMNH library previously cited as
a free download.
You might also look at any paper by Barbara Lawrence on dogs -- she had
many mensural parameters supposedly good for differentiation, and you can
plug your own measurements into her tables and graphs to see where they
stand:
Lawrence, Barbara. 1975. Relationships of North American Canis shown by a
multiple character analysis of selected populations, in M.W. Fox, ed., The
Wild Canids: Their Systematics, Behavioral Ecology, and Evolution. Van
Nostrand-Rhinehold, New York, pp. 73-86.
Also: Meadow, Richard H. 2000. The contributions of Barbara Lawrence to
the study of dogs, with a comprehensive listing of her measurement
definitions, in S.J. Crockford, ed., Dogs Through Time, BAR International
Series no. 889:35-48.
A real gem, by an old master:
Hildebrand, Milton. 1951. Comparative morphology of the body skeleton in
recent Canidae, University of California Publications in Zoology
52(1951-1954):399-459 + 15 plates
And you might build on this one, as the mastoid region has proven fertile
ground in many carnivore taxa for differentiation:
Yates, Bonnie C. 2000. Use of the mastoid region of the crania of cnids to
distinguish wolves, dogs, and wolf/dog hybrids, in S.J. Crockford, ed.,
Dogs Through Time, BAR International Series no. 889:269-270.
I happen to have all of these under my nose at the moment because I've
just spent a week mining the bowels of the Shields Library at the
University of California at Davis. For a school that's primarily known for
producing veterinarians, they have a surprisingly excellent collection of
stuff of interest to zooarchaeologists! Cheers -- Deb Bennett
> In Elisabeth Schmidt's bone atlas there is a diagram for distinguishing
> dog and fox from mandibles/maxillae - something to do with canine teeth I
> seem to remember. And some while ago I observed, and checked on as many
> specimens as possible - it was consistent - that there is a little dent on
> the supraorbital process of fox, but not of dog
> best wishes
> j
> Julie Hamilton
> Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art
> Dyson Perrins Building
> South Parks Rd
> OXFORD OX1 3QY
>
> email: [log in to unmask]
> Tel: (01865 ) 285203
>
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