ABSTRACT. To obtain the data required for identification of skeletal remains excavated from archaeological sites, histometrical observations were made in the cross sections of the mid-shaft of humerus, radius, femur and tibia of raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and badgers (Meles meles) captured in Kagoshima Prefecture. There were interspecific differences between both animals in the breadth, the depth and the area of medullary cavity at the mid-shaft of the bones. In badgers, all measurements were greater in male than in female bones. The thickness and the area of compact bones in male raccoon dogs were larger than those of female. No differences in histological structure could be detected among the bones, but an interspecific difference was found in the shape of osteons; round and constant-sized osteons consisting of 3 to 5 lamellae in raccoon dogs, while round or elliptic osteons varying in size from 3 to 8 lamellae in badgers. The ratios, the osteon areas per unit compact bone areas, were higher in all the bones of raccoon dogs. The short diameters of osteons and the ratios were greater in males in both animals. In females, the short diameter of osteons was smaller, and the number of osteons was larger. The results revealed interspecific differences between both animals and sexual dimorphism in each species. -KEY WORDS: badger, bone histometry, interspecific difference, raccoon dog, sexual dimorphism.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 60(3): 323-326, 1998 in the present study. The animal with the closed epiphyseal lines of long bones was regarded as adult. Two cross sections (1 mm thick) were obtained from each mid-shaft of the bone. The specimens were dehydrated in a graded ethanol series and embedded in Rigorac, a polyester resin to prepare undecalcified ground sections (30 to 40 µm thick). After the ground sections were observed with a light microscope, 9 items shown in Table 1 with their abbreviations were measured with an image analyzer (Nikon COSMOZONE Is) in each section. NO, DO and RO were measured at the anterior, posterior, medial and lateral regions (1 mm 2 each) of the section of each bone. These data were compared between species, sexes or kinds of bones using Student's t-test.
RESULTS
Morphometrical observations in cross sections:The values obtained in cross sections of the mid-shaft of each Recently, a number of skeletal remains of animals including those belonging to the canid and mustelid species were excavated from archaeological sites in Kyushu [13]. Only a few complete skeletons were found, however, and most discoveries were bone fragments. In such cases, it is difficult to identify species with bones similar in size. This is particularly true for bones of the limbs of raccoon dogs and badgers. Because the mid-shaft is less characteristic in form as compared with the proximal and distal extremities of the limb bones, macroscopic identification of raccoon dogs and badgers is extremely difficult.A large number of histometrical studies were made on the bones of human [2,3,6,17,18], which described...