Geometric morphometric analysis of skull and mandible in Awassi ewe and ram

The aim of the study was to analyze Awassi ewe and ram skull and mandible by geometric morphometric methods. For this purpose, different numbers of skulls and mandibles of adult Awassi sheep were used based on sexual dimorphism. The skull was analyzed using the photos taken from 17 samples from dorsal side and 16 samples from the left lateral side, and the mandible was analyzed using the photos taken from 20 samples from the left lateral side. In the comparison of Awassi sheep skull from the dorsal and lateral sides between the sexes, the first principal component accounted for 37.719% and 44.238% of the total shape difference, respectively. In mandible, the first principal component accounted for 24.92% of the total shape difference. The skull had an apparent dimorphism in both sides between the sexes but the same effect was not observed in mandible. As a result, it is considered that the results obtained would contribute to the future studies related to ruminant cranium to be performed using geometric morphometric method.