Junaid Jabbar, Razia Kausar*, Aimen Sabir, Huma Jamil and Zubair Luqman
Gallus gallus or chickens, are birds commonly consumed by people and are found in assemblages on regular basis. They are being domesticated for decades and constitutes about 90% of total poultry population. This study was designed with intent to determine osteometric parameters of selected long bones of cranial and caudal appendicular skeleton in both male and female groups of domestic backyard poultry breeds of Pakistan. Chickens were reared in a scavenging environment with zero external input for six months (~26 weeks). Bone length, breadth and weight was assessed. Aseel reigned over all studied groups of male and female with statistically significant higher length, breadth and weight in most of the selected bones with mean (± SEM) length (cm) of humerus (8.19 ± 0.11), radius (7.47 ± 0.06), ulna (8.26 ± 0.09), femur (8.23 ± 0.08), tibia (13.46 ± 0.19), metatarsals (8.68 ± 0.05) and weight (g) of humerus (4.81 ± 0.24), radius (0.97 ± 0.05), ulna (2.64 ± 0.06), femur (6.30 ± 0.37) and tibia (8.49 ± 0.41) in male studied groups while length (cm) of humerus (7.92 ± 0.02), radius (6.96 ± 0.01), ulna (7.42 ± 0.04), femur (8.76 ± 0.06), tibia (12.34 ± 0.01), metatarsals (8.47 ± 0.01) and weight (g) of humerus (3.46 ± 0.02), radius (0.69 ± 0.01) and femur (4.18 ± 0.05) in female groups. Naked neck exhibited lowest length (cm) of humerus (2.43 ± 0.11), ulna (0.59 ± 0.02), femur (7.64 ± 0.13), tibia (11.12 ± 0.25), metatarsals (7.67 ± 0.19) and lowest weight (g) of humerus (2.43 ± 0.11), radius (0.59 ± 0.02), ulna (1.56 ± 0.06), femur (2.65 ± 0.27), and tibia (3.67 ± 0.36) among male groups. Such osteometric data values are helpful in taxonomic and zooarchaeological studies as well.
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Journal of Morphology and Anatomy received 63 citations as per Google Scholar report
