Study On The Morphology Of The Cranium Of Macaca Mulatta In The Taihangmountains

In the study of nonhuman primate morphological characteristics, the cranium has been the focus of thestudy all the time at domestic and abroad. The research of primate morphological characteristics has madein progress, especially in the aspects of the populations and sex differences. But in the country, theseresearches are very few, especially the research about the cranium of Macaca mulatta. The main purpose ofthis paper is to research some morphological characteristics of the cranium of Macaca mulatta in TaihangMountains. All efforts are to hope to accumulate some data and information for the basic research and theprotection of Macaca mulatta.In this paper,65cases of the cranial specimens of Macaca mulatta in Taihang Mountains (male19cases, female42cases) have been analysied. Five major morphological variables have been measured andstudied. The measured datas have been analysied by SPSS13.0for Windows statistical software. Statisticalmethods were discriminant analysis, one-way ANOVA and correlation analysis and so on. The mainconclusions and the results are as follows:(1) The purpose of analysing a single variable or more variables is to study the sex differences and theside differences of Macaca mulatta in Taihang Mountains. Different variables have different genderdifferences. If not considering the age of the65cases, there will be different between male and female. Butin the same side, there will be no diference. If considering the age, there will be no significant differencebetween the gender.(2) The aim is to analyse the different five major morphological variables by discriminant analysis,including Enter independent together method and Stepwise method. Then different variables from two sidesof body were choosed to be taken back to Original and Cross-Validated. The statistical test showed that thetwo methods had their advantages and disadvantages, but the Enter independent together method suggestedthe higher applicative values in practice.(3) The results about the asymmetry of the cranium showed that some variables have directionalasymmetry and fluctuating asymmetry. On the whole, there were not significant difference between maleand female, but there were different in the same side. (4) Correlation analysis showed that if not considering the age of the65cases, five majormorphological variables had positively correlated. Considering the age, some variables of male specimensin the adult group had negatively correlated, but more positive.