. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology. OSTEOLOGY OF THE SOAY SHEEP. Plate 2 Female skull (no. ) to show 'thumb- prints' and depletion of the bone of both horn cores. The Soay sheep on Hirta have never been penned or driven by humans but it is possible that injury to the elbow joint occurs when the sheep crowd together in the cleits. Plate 15 shows a humerus with a severely deformed distal epiphysis. There is extensive overgrowth of the bone and an eburnation on the medial condyle which is typical of osteo- arthritis, as described by Baker & Broth well (1980). Rad
. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology. OSTEOLOGY OF THE SOAY SHEEP. Plate 2 Female skull (no. ) to show 'thumb- prints' and depletion of the bone of both horn cores. The Soay sheep on Hirta have never been penned or driven by humans but it is possible that injury to the elbow joint occurs when the sheep crowd together in the cleits. Plate 15 shows a humerus with a severely deformed distal epiphysis. There is extensive overgrowth of the bone and an eburnation on the medial condyle which is typical of osteo- arthritis, as described by Baker & Broth well (1980). Radiographic examination of skeletal elements Although there are some severe pathologies in the bones of the Soays, in general the skeletons appear to be from healthy animals that show little evidence of malnutrition. This agrees with the findings of Benzie & Gill (1974) who made a radiographic survey of 50 living sheep on Hirta in 1965 and 1966. They concluded that the mineral status of the skeleton of the Soay sheep on the island was good and could compare favourably with mainland sheep grazing on a good hill. In the present study a series of femora and other limb bones were radiographed in an attempt to identify Harris's lines. These horizontal lines, which reflect a period of re- tarded growth, can sometimes be seen at the ends of long bones and in the mandible in skeletons of animals or humans that have undergone a period of starvation or stress (Mays, 1985; Baker & Brothwell, 1980). No Harris's lines or evi- dence of starvation were seen in the radiographs of the Soay bones. Radiographs of the metapodial bones of the Soays were used by Liora Horwitz to assess the effects of lactation on the thickness of cortical bone relative to the width of the medullary cavity. Horwitz found that the cortical bone of the metacarpals of the female Soays from Hirta was slightly, but significantly, thinner than that of metacarpal bones of female Soays from Babraham, Cambridge, which h
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