Red junglefowl are regarded as the primary wild ancestor of domestic fowl and are thought to have been domesticated in multiple regions. The osteological microevolution of red junglefowl and domestic fowl during domestication, especially at the earliest stage, has still not been thoroughly investigated, despite the fact that a proper understanding of this process is required to chart the progress of domestication. In this paper, the major long bones of the modern wild red junglefowl, captive red junglefowl in cages, and domestic fowl from various breeds were measured and the data were compared using t-tests and analysis of covariance. The results showed that captive red junglefowl were generally smaller than wild red junglefowl but the distal part of tibiotarsus was relatively thicker in the former. In addition, parts of the wing bone were thinner in captive red junglefowl than in wild red junglefowl. Assuming the morphological difference between extant wild and captive red junglefowl is analogous to that between ancient wild and captive red junglefowl, these differences suggest that body size reduction and other morphological changes occurred in the earliest stage of the domestication process. These results will be useful for estimating the progress of domestication in red junglefowl archaeological remains and making comparisons with domestic fowl bones.

红原鸡被认为是家禽的主要野生祖先，并被认为已在多个地区被驯化。驯化过程中红原鸡和家禽的骨学微进化，特别是在最早阶段，仍然没有得到彻底的研究，尽管需要正确理解这一过程来绘制驯化进程。本文对现代野生红原鸡、笼养红原鸡和家禽不同品种的主要长骨进行了测量，并采用t检验和协方差分析对数据进行了比较。结果表明，圈养红原鸡体型普遍小于野生红原鸡，但前者胫跗骨远端较粗。此外，圈养红原鸡的部分翼骨比野生红原鸡更薄。假设现存野生和圈养红原鸡的形态差异类似于古代野生和圈养红原鸡的形态差异，这些差异表明在驯化过程的最早阶段发生了体型缩小和其他形态变化。这些结果将有助于估计红原鸡考古遗迹的驯化进展，并与家禽骨骼进行比较。这些差异表明，体型缩小和其他形态变化发生在驯化过程的最早阶段。这些结果将有助于估计红原鸡考古遗迹的驯化进展，并与家禽骨骼进行比较。这些差异表明，体型缩小和其他形态变化发生在驯化过程的最早阶段。这些结果将有助于估计红原鸡考古遗迹的驯化进展，并与家禽骨骼进行比较。