Influence of captivity and selection on limb long bone cross-sectional morphology of reindeer.

Maxime Pelletier,Sirpa Niinimäki,Anna‐Kaisa Salmi

doi:10.1002/jmor.21403

Abstract

The emergence of pastoralism and animal husbandry has been a critical point in the history of human evolution. Beyond profound behavioural changes in domesticated animals compared to wild ones, characterising the morphological changes associated with domestication process remains challenging. Because reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) can be considered to still be in the early phases of the domestication process, the study of modern populations provides a unique opportunity to examine the impact of captivity and selective breeding on skeletal changes. In this work, we investigated the morphological changes in long limb bone cross-sections using 137 wild and domestic reindeer individuals bred in free-range, in captivity or used for racing and pulling. The shape and shaft cortical thickness of the six long limb bones (i.e., humerus, radioulna, metacarpal, femur, tibia and metatarsal) were measured using a 2D-geometric morphometrics approach taking into account subspecies, sex, body mass and lifestyle differences. These bones are important to understanding functional morphological changes because they can provide information on feeding and locomotor behaviours, as well as on body propulsion and weight bearing. Apart from the effects of taxonomy, etho-ecology and sex, we have found that captivity and selection induced important variations in the size and body mass of modern reindeer. Our results also showed that patterns of variation in cortical bone thickness of long limb bone cross-sections were strongly impacted by body mass and human-imposed restrictions in roaming. This demonstrates that bone cross-sections can provide information on changes in locomotor, reproductive and feeding behaviours induced by the domestication process. These results are valuable not only for (paleo) biologists studying the impact of captivity and selection in ungulates but also for archaeologists exploring the origins of domestication and early herding strategies.

Highlights

The process of domestication has been a key stage in the evolution of interactions between humans, animals and their environment
Similar works have recently been conducted on the morphology of the long bones of the fore- and hind limb in reindeer and have shown that they could provide information on changes in feeding and locomotor behaviour induced by captivity and domestication (Pelletier et al, 2020, 2021). These works only concerned external morphological changes on articular surfaces, trochanters or condyles, as well as on muscle and ligament insertions to explain the functional changes in reindeer, but they did not study the effects on the internal structure of these bones, nor their relationship to body mass
Beyond the effects of taxonomy, etho-ecology and sex, we have demonstrated that patterns of variation in size, shape and cortical bone thickness of long limb bone cross-sections in modern reindeer populations were strongly impacted by human influence

Summary

| INTRODUCTION

The process of domestication has been a key stage in the evolution of interactions between humans, animals and their environment. Similar works have recently been conducted on the morphology of the long bones of the fore- and hind limb in reindeer and have shown that they could provide information on changes in feeding and locomotor behaviour induced by captivity and domestication (Pelletier et al, 2020, 2021) These works only concerned external morphological changes on articular surfaces, trochanters or condyles, as well as on muscle and ligament insertions to explain the functional changes in reindeer, but they did not study the effects on the internal structure of these bones, nor their relationship to body mass. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effects of different parameters (i.e., size, body mass, subspecies, sex and lifestyle) on bone cross-sectional morphology This provides valuable information on the relationship between changes in reindeer behaviour induced by human control and changes in bone cross-sectional properties. This methodology and these results are valuable for enhancing our understanding of animal domestication and early herding practises

| MATERIAL AND METHODS

| DISCUSSION

Findings

| CONCLUSION