Authors : L. Miguel Carreira and A. Ferreira
Abstract: The study was developed in 69 canine adult skulls (n = 69), divided into three groups according to type of skull: Brachi (B), Dolicho (D) and Mesaticephalic (M) (n = 23 each) and aimed: to quantify the average values for two novel Cephalic Indices (CIs) the Sagittal (SCI) and the Transverse (TCI) cephalic indices and to describe the relationships amongst the three main CIs. Neurocranium maximum length, width and height distances were measured using a digital caliper and for statistical analysis, p<0.05 were considered significant. For the three groups the work presents reference values for the SCI of 56.4% for the B group, 41.7% for the D group and 58.9% for the M group and for the TCI which presented a wide variation with reference values of 63.1% for the B group, 95.1% for the D and 87.5% for the M group. Relationship between the SCI and TCI was strong in B (R = 0.85) and M (R = 0.95) but weak in D (R = 0.16). Relationship registered between the HCI and SCI was strong only for D (R = 0.96) and between the HCI and TCI was weak in all groups. The CIs provide a simple, highly repetitive and uniform method for identifying dog head types as B, D and M.
L. Miguel Carreira and A. Ferreira, 2015. Reference Values for Dog Sagittal and Transverse Cephalic Indices in Different Skull Types and Their Importance. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 14: 91-94.