Age-related changes in the area of the nasolabial plane dermatoglyph in marals

Animal and human skin has long been an object of academic research. Meanwhile, by the present time, science has accumulated extensive material on the use of methods of phenetics and population biology, which can help to analyze the state, kinship, patterns of phylogenesis, and prospects for the development of natural populations. Currently, more than 40 phenes have been identified in cattle, but the most informative of them are the dermatoglyphs of the nasolabial plane. Although Russian and foreign works do provide some information on the phenetics of the dermatoglyphs of the nasolabial plane of cattle, the range of research is limited. The nasolabial plane of farm animals, of marals, in particular, serves as an alternative visual phenocomplex. Taking into consideration the need to improve some elements of selection and breeding in the maral farming, one would find it relevant to compare the area of the dermatoglyphs of the nasolabial plane with the productive qualities of maral stags. The research and experimental part took place in 2020 and used maral stags of different ages (2-14) of the Novotalitskoye Experiment Station in Altai Krai. The objective of this work was to study the age-related changes in nasolabial plane area in marals. In the course of the experiment, we determined that the area of the nasolabial plane varied from 35 to 43 cm2 depending on the maral stag age. The variation factor for this parameter was within the range 8.6-11.1. The method of nasolabial plane printing tested in the course of this work showed no pronounced side effects. We found that the outer surface of the nasolabial plane of marals is characterized by an uneven bumpy surface. This is due to the fact that it has many ridge-shaped protrusions and funnel-shaped depressions with tactile hairs, forming various patterns. The number of protrusions (differing in size) on the nasolabial plane of marals was 205.6-260.3, whereas the number of depressions was 22.4-26.5, respectively. This material can be of worth for the study of the correlation between the phenocomplexes of the nasolabial planes and the economically useful characteristics of marals, and the possibility of using this technique in breeding.