Morphometric comparative study of the hind limb muscles in wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and domesticated rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus).

Abstract

Aims: The functional morphology of the hind limb muscles has received less study than the functional morphology of their appendicular skeletons. This study explores the differences identified in these two groups accurately and simply by providing a complete description and comparative morphometric analysis of the hind leg muscles in wild and domesticated rabbits. Methods: In this investigation, five adult male wild rabbits and five adult male domesticated rabbits, were employed. Results: The study finds significant morphometric diversity among these rabbits other than size, although the sample size is too small and inadequate to determine if this reflects significant interspecific changes in hind leg muscles. Most conspicuously, anatomical and metric data show that the overall weight, length, and width of gluteal muscles in wild rabbits were larger than those in domesticated rabbits. The study also showed that the weight, length, and width of wild rabbits' biceps femoris and semitendinosus muscles were bigger than those of domesticated rabbits. Furthermore, the length and width of semimembranous muscle in domesticated rabbits were shown to be greater than in wild rabbits. The length of the quadratus femoris in wild rabbits, however, was less than in domesticated rabbits. The sartorius muscle parameters, on the other hand, appear to be the same as those of the other muscles in this study. Conclusions: These findings have substantial implications for individual positioning behavior theories and show that bigger samples and more comprehensive muscle series are required to increase our comprehension of these variations.