ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - D - THE LEOPARD (Panthera pardus)

[Luipaard]

(09-25-2019, 08:23 AM)peter Wrote:

(09-12-2019, 10:24 PM)Luipaard Wrote: @peter Interestingly, the largest of all the skulls you've measured is one from Central Africa. That's not a coincidence as you have told me that these particular leopards in general have a larger and more robust skull. But when I look at the measurements, I suspect it to have been a rather smallish or young male when looking at the following measurements:

*This image is copyright of its original author

As you can see, the average size for 7 adult males in this case is 261 x 160 mm and for young adult males 237 x 140 mm. The skull you have measured (243,98 x 149,51 mm) overlaps with young and full grown males, indicating it must have been a rather small one or not full grown yet. And except for the Central African skull and the Persian one, no other skull manages to rival the smallest of the adults in the list above, let alone the average.

The sample is small of course but it's interesting to see nonetheless. And of course like you said; individual variation, especially in adult males, is well developed.

I recently talked to a vet interested in skulls. He told me about 2 leopard skulls well exceeding 10 inches in greatest total length. I'll post about both skulls when I have the details (measurements and photographs).

Looking forward to seeing your post. I'm especially interested in the origin of those two skulls. Reply