Clavicle Morphology Of Macaca Mulatta In The Taihang Mountains

Clavicle is a long bone with a special double curved structure, as one of the shoulderbone structure; it has special growth pattern, morphological structure and physiologicalfunction. In the study of nonhuman primate morphological characteristics, the scapula hasbeen the focus of the study all the time at domestic and abroad. While the study of clavicle,abroad development more quickly. In the country, the research is relatively small,especially the research about the clavicle of Macaca mulatta. The main purpose of thispaper is to research the characteristics of claviclar curvatures, sex differences of claviclesand directional asymmetry of clavicles, humeri and femurs of Macaca mulatta in TaihangMountains. All efforts hope to provide the basis for the primate heredity, variation andevolution, as well as accumulate some data and information for the basic research and theprotection of Macaca mulatta.Specimens in the study of curvatures consisted of51skeletons (16males and35females), and in the study of sex differences consisted of51skeletons (18males and33females). For the directional asymmetry, specimens consisted of61skeletons (18malesand43females) of clavicles, and68skeletons (19males and49females) in either humerusor femur, they were divided into groups according to sex and age. SPSS19.0was used forstatistical analysis. Methods were discriminant analysis, one-way ANOVA and correlationanalysis and so on. The main results are as follows:(1) Clavicle curvaturesFor Macaca mulatta, in cranial view, clavicles were characterized by a pronouncedinternal curvature and a slight external one; and in dorsal view, clavicles werecharacterized by a pronounced inferior one and a slight superior one. There weresignificant correlations between the curvatures in cranial view and those in dorsal view;but there were not any correlation between clavicle length and four clavicular curvatures.(2) Sex differences of claviclesFor the0ne-way analysis of variance derived, most variables of clavicles showedhighly significant sex differences. Only using variables of the clavicles, the accuracies of sex determination were low. However, using the relative sizes of the clavicles and craniallengths, accuracies of sex determination became better. Overall, female discrimination washigher than male and the discriminations were no differences between the two sides.(3) Directional asymmetry of claviclesThe right clavicle length tends to be longer, but this does not reach statisticalsignificance; the left clavicle midshaft cross-sectional area was significantly greater thanthe right, and it had statistical significance. The right humerus length tends to be slightlonger, but this does not reach statistical significance; the right humerus midshaftcross-sectional area was significantly greater than the left, and it had statistical significance.Two variables on both sides of the femur were basically symmetry. The directionalasymmetry patterns of clavicle variables were different from their humerus and femur’s.