Saddle point
A saddle mark is a pattern on animals in which a darker (seldom lighter) mark like a riding saddle or a saddle pad runs over the back and both sides of the body without closing into a ring on the belly side.
Saddle spots are particularly known from the drawings of vertebrates , for example various fish and snakes . When sharks such stains are often designed especially common in the types of bamboo sharks and dogfish z. B. the puff adder dogfish ( Haploblepharus edwardsii ). The saddle-spot anemonefish ( Amphiprion polymnus ), the saddle-pointed puffer fish ( Canthigaster valentini ), the black- saddle filefish ( Paraluteres prionurus ) and the saddle-spot borneo loach ( Homaloptera orthogoniata ) as well as many other freshwater and marine fish have their German-language names.
The boa constrictor and the python are among the snakes in which the shape of the saddle spots can be used to identify species and subspecies .
Such saddle marks are noticeable in mammals , for example in the black-backed tapir , which owes its name to this feature. Particularly bright saddle spots are typical for the rams of many groups of mouflons , where they are also sometimes called saddlecloths. In the domestic sheep breeds , the presence of this trait indicates the genetic relationship with certain groups of wild sheep. This drawing is also one of the important breed characteristics of other domestic animal breeds, for example the angler saddle pig .
literature
- Leonard Compagno , Marc Dando, Sarah Fowler: Sharks of the World. Princeton Field Guides, Princeton University Press , Princeton / Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-691-12072-2 , p. 333.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arne Ludwig: Descent of the European domestic sheep and phylogeny of the Eurasian wild sheep. (= Series of publications by the Information Center for Genetic Resources. Volume 09). Central Office for Agricultural Documentation and Information, Bonn 1998.