Аннотация:The identification of cattle breeds is a challenging task in zooarchaeological studies without a modern reference collection. This study was carried out on modern cattle breeds of known age to investigate shape and size differences for metacarpal and metatarsal bones between Hungarian Grey and Charolais breeds. The effects of allometry and age were tested to find out whether these were the confounding factors that prevent accurate discrimination between breeds. The results revealed clear separation between breed groups within both metacarpal and metatarsal elements. Allometric variation was found to be present in both metacarpals and metatarsals within each breed. The effects of age on size and shape were evident only in Charolais metacarpal bones. This study provides the basis for applying methods of geometric morphometrics to zooarchaeological studies.
