Temporal Trends in Skull Morphology of the European Bison from the 1950s to the Present Day

Abstract

The shape and size of the skull are determined by various factors. These factors act not only on single individuals in their ontogenesis, but can affect entire populations in the long term, thus determining developmental trends. The aim of this study was to determine whether the craniometric features of the European bison skull and their proportions are constant or change over time. In total, 1097 European bison skulls from the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Warsaw University of Life Sciences were examined. It has been shown that almost all examined skull dimensions tend to decrease. The opposite phenomenon was observed for the height of the skull in males. The results of the work prove that European bison adapt to changing environmental conditions related to climate warming, food availability, and population density.