HI, Kevin: Here is some possibly relevant data from our ongoing dog study,
all measurements in mm's. Note that minimum shaft diameter (SD)
measurement is not as reliable on the tibia as on femur, radius, or
humerus because of the tapering shape of the bone -- it's hard to decide
where to actually take the measurement, so I regard it as an estimate. I
prefer to calculate the "stoutness" of the tibia by dividing the proximal
width of the head (BP) by GL, whereas on other limb bones it is fine to
use SD X 100/GL. I provide both calculations to you below:

CHIHUAHUA, sex unknown. GL 81.81; SD 8.0; BP 20.56; BD 13.87. Shaft
stoutness about 9.8% calculated by SD, 25.13 calculated by BP.

PEKINGESE, male. GL 74.79; SD 8.0; BP 22.60; BD 16.87. Shaft stoutness
about 10.7 calculated by SD, 30.21 calculated by BP.

PEKINGESE, female. GL 85.96; SD 9.7; BP 27.13; BD 18.26. Shaft stoutness
about 11.3 calculated by SD, 31.56 calculated by BP.

POMERANIAN, sex unknown. GL 81.8; SD 9.2; BP 20.43; BD 13.78. Shaft
stoutness about 11.2 calculated by SD, 24.97 calculated by BP.

YORKSHIRE TERRIER, sex unknown. GL 72.95; SD 7.9; BP 16.25; BD 11.36.
Shaft stoutness about 10.8 calculated by SD, 22.27 calculated by BP.

JACK RUSSELL TERRIER, female. GL 76.75; SD 8.9; BP 20.59; BD 14.17. Shaft
stoutness about 11.6 calculated by SD, 26.8 calculated by BP.

JACK RUSSELL TERRIER, female. GL 88.36; SD 9.95; BP 24.4; BD 15.88. Shaft
stoutness about 11.3 calculated by SD, 27.61 calculated by BP.

JACK RUSSELL TERRIER, female. GL 66.76; SD 7.77; BP 20.4; BD 14.62. Shaft
stoutness about 11.7 calculated by SD, 30.55 calculated by BP.

DACHSHUND, male. GL 70.74; SD 13.5; BP 28.69; BD 20.27. Shaft stoutness
about 19.1 calculated by SD, 40.55 calculated by BP.

DACHSHUND, sex unknown. GL 71.76; SD 13.0; BP 25.29; BD 20.27. Shaft
stoutness about 18.1 calculated by SD, 35.24 calculated by BP.

DACHSHUND, female. GL 62.93; SD 11.43; BP 27.88; BD 18.07. Shaft stoutness
about 18.2 calculated by SD, 44.30 calculated by BP.

....as you can see from the above, if your dog is a Dachshund it will jump
out at you instantly as being far more rugged and stout. This is because
Dachshunds are bred from the dwarfing gene complex which produces the
genetic disease called achondroplasia, which causes the epiphyses of the
long bones to fuse to the shafts far earlier than normal. It has other
pleiotropic effects as well, i.e. on metabolism, sperm motility, and the
development of the skull.

All the other dogs on this list are bred as miniatures, except the Peke
which like other bulldogs shows "some" dwarfing effect. How
miniaturization can be manifest along with achondroplasia is an unstudied
area. Miniaturization arises through dysfunction of the pituitary gland's
ability to produce growth hormone. These dogs have long bones that are
more or less proportionally similar to those of "eumorphic" dogs, i.e. a
eumorphic dog is one with body morphology like a Dingo.

In identifying any small dog from anywhere or any time period, it is
crucial to get our researchers up to speed on distinguishing miniatures
from dwarfs, and the % minimum shaft calculation does that pretty
effectively. Not that there is not a range -- there is, as you see. On
this subject, please go read Ian Baxter's opus on small dogs -- his papers
are all cited in my "Dogs of Roman Vindolanda" series which began to
appear a couple of years ago in "Archaeofauna". If you don't have those
papers, reply privately and I'll send them to you as .pdf's.

I would be very reluctant to identify the breed of your specimen off a
single limb bone; really to do that you need a full associated skull and
skeleton. Not to mention the difficulties inherent in what is even meant
by the term "breed" -- although you seem to be on fairly solid ground
there, because you're talking about dog shows, which arose as a fad during
the 19th century. Where there are shows, there must be rules,
standardizations, and therefore "papers" and on that basis alone can you
talk about "breed" as opposed to "morphotype" or "landrace".

Even though I think you don't have enough material to identify the dog to
breed, from the available data you CAN state that the dog is not from one
of the smaller dwarfed bloodlines, i.e. it is not a Dachshund (and also,
by extention, not a Lhasa Apso, a Scottie, a Cairn Terrier, or a Welsh
Corgi).

I would also be reluctant to identify the dog's breed as any from the
Western Hemisphere when there are so many European miniatures to choose
from. I don't have limb bone data for these, but besides Chihuahua,
Yorkie, Peke and Pom, you should try to get measurements for Maltese,
miniature Doberman, and miniature Poodle. Write to the curator at Berne
(Marc Nussbaumer) and see if he'd be willing to help you with this. Cheers
-- Deb Bennett



> Dear Kevin,
> We have two small dog reference specimens in the our collection that would
> be of similar size – a Pomeranian (HE #68.4) and a Pekingese (HE # 67.7).
> The measurements are as follows:
>
> Measurements (mm)
>
> Pekingese (tibia)
>
> Pomeranian (tibia)
>
> London (tibia)
>
> GL
>
> 63.5
>
> 84.9
>
> 74.2
>
> SD
>
> 7.5
>
> 5.7
>
> 5.3
>
> Bp
>
> 17.7
>
> 16.5
>
> 18
>
> Bd
>
> 11.4
>
> 10.6
>
> 11.6
>
>
> It seems as though the tibia would comfortably fit the size range between
> the two reference specimens.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Jessica
>
> Jessica Waterworth
> Specialist Work-based Training Placement in Zooarchaeology
> Historic England
>
> Fort Cumberland
> Fort Cumberland Road
> Portsmouth
> PO4 9LD
>
> Fort Cumberland reception: 02392856789
> Ext: 6773
>
> From: Kevin Rielly <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 6/02/18 11:23 AM (GMT+00:00)
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ZOOARCH] A possible chihuahua
> Dear All,
>
> I wonder if anyone can help. I have a very small dog from a 19th century
> deposit in London, just a single bone, a tibia with a GL 74.2mm and SD
> 5.3mm, The height after Hartcourt is 226mm. This suggests it could be one
> of a number of very small dogs including the Chihuahua. If it is this
> breed then it could be one of the earliest in England. I found a reference
> for one shown in a dog show in Regents Park in 1897. However before I get
> carried away I thought I’d ask if anyone out there has reference dog
> skeletons including a Chihuahua or perhaps a Pekinese or a dachshund.
> While each of these breeds appears to conform to the height of this
> specimen, what I’d like to know if any also conform to the rather gracile
> nature of this bone. Other measurements include a Bp of 18 and a Bd of
> 11.6mm
>
> Thanks and all the best
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
>
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