Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery

Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery

Estimating Endocranial Volume in the Domestic Cat (Felis catus) Using Computed Tomography

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Ebru Eravci Yalin 1
Sedat Aydoğdu 2
Ozan Gündemir 3
Mehmet Saadeddin Öztürk 4
Margot Michaud 5, 6
1 Department of Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, Turkiye.
2 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkiye.
3 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, Turkiye.
4 Bioengineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkiye.
5 Evolution and Diversity Dynamics Lab, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
6 Department of African Zoology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium.
10.30500/ivsa.2024.482729.1418
Abstract
Changes in brain and endocranial volume size are observed in most mammals during domestication. However, while much attention has been paid to comparing domesticated species with their wild relatives, few studies have focused on the differences between domesticated breeds, especially in cats. In this study, we estimated the endocranial volume of two different domestic cat breeds (Felis catus) using virtual endocasts obtained from computed tomography (CT) images. Our analysis did not reveal any significant differences between the British Shorthair and the Scottish Fold domestic breeds in terms of endocranial volume. In addition, we found similar results with volumes previously obtained from domestic cats using bead methods. Although these results represent only a limited sample of the entire cat breed diversity, we hope they will contribute to our understanding of the macroevolutionary changes in brain volume during domestication.
Keywords
Computed tomography
Endocranial volume
Felis catus
Virtual endocast
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 10 October 2024
  • Revise Date 09 November 2024
  • Accept Date 30 November 2024
  • First Publish Date 30 November 2024