ABSTRACT

Camel populations can be found in large parts of the arid regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia. In this broad distribution, they exhibit large phenotypic variation, which so far has mostly been examined using traditional distance based morphometric approaches. The main pitfalls of previous studies include (1) the relatively few and ambiguously defined morphometric measurements, which often do not cover all functionally important traits, and (2) the narrow sampling of breeds and geographic regions. In this work, we provide some recommendations on how to standardise morphometric data collection, and also overview more advanced methods for capturing morphometric data in camels – this would greatly ease the process of data collection in these animals, which can sometimes be difficult to work with. As the morphometrics of camels can be studied for different purposes, we focus this review on its applicability to breed identification and delimitation, which is commonly studied on living camels. We also review methods commonly used in camel morphometrics, suggest a set of best practices, and outline novel methods. Finally, we suggest potential applied uses for these morphometric studies, particularly within the context of developing breeds specialised for different purposes, such as the production of meat, milk, and leather. While we focus this review on dromedaries, we anticipate that most recommendations will be widely applicable to other camelids, and livestock in general. The methods described in this review provide a detailed characterisation of phenotype in an efficient manner, allowing for the compilation of large morphometric data banks that would improve the understanding of the phenotypic structure of camel populations.

摘要

在非洲、亚洲和澳大利亚的大部分干旱地区都可以找到骆驼种群。在这个广泛的分布中，它们表现出很大的表型变异，到目前为止，大多数使用传统的基于距离的形态测量方法进行了检查。先前研究的主要缺陷包括 (1) 相对较少且定义模糊的形态测量测量，通常无法涵盖所有​​重要的功能性状，以及 (2) 品种和地理区域的抽样范围较窄。在这项工作中，我们提供了一些关于如何标准化形态测量数据收集的建议，并概述了在骆驼中捕获形态测量数据的更高级方法——这将大大简化这些动物的数据收集过程，这些过程有时很难处理. 由于可以针对不同目的研究骆驼的形态测量学，因此我们将本综述重点放在其对品种识别和定界的适用性上，这通常在活骆驼上进行研究。我们还回顾了骆驼形态测量学中常用的方法，提出了一组最佳实践，并概述了新方法。最后，我们建议这些形态学研究的潜在应用用途，特别是在开发专门用于不同目的的品种的背景下，例如肉类、牛奶和皮革的生产。虽然我们将这次审查重点放在单峰驼上，但我们预计大多数建议将广泛适用于其他骆驼科动物和一般牲畜。本综述中描述的方法以有效的方式提供了表型的详细表征，