Domestic Sheep Skull Replica

$182.00

The Domestic Sheep has been a stable food source for human populations for nearly 7000 years. In addition to their meat, humans also make use of their milk and wool. Today, there are in excess of 1000 breeds of domestic sheep.

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Description

Domestic Sheep Skull Replica measures 9.1 in. Domestic Sheep Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast made in the USA. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

Sheep or Ovis aries are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like most ruminants, domestic sheep or Ovis aries are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name sheep applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries.

Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep or Ovis aries are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a Ewe, an intact male as a Ram, occasionally a Tup, a castrated male as a Wether, and a young sheep is a Lamb.

Domestic sheep or Ovis aries are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool and often with horns forming a lateral spiral.

Domestic sheep or Ovis aries differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans.

A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, such as short tails. Depending on breed, domestic sheep may have no horns at all, or horns in both sexes, or in males only. Most horned breeds have a single pair, but a few breeds may have several.

Another trait unique to Domestic sheep or Ovis aries is their wide variation in color. Wild sheep are largely variations of brown hues, and variation within species is extremely limited. Colors of domestic sheep range from pure white to dark chocolate brown, and even spotted or piebald.

Suffolk’s are a medium wool, black-faced breed of meat sheep that make up 60 percent of the sheep population in the U.S. colored sheep do appear in many modern breeds, and may even appear as a recessive trait in white flocks.

While white wool is desirable for large commercial markets, there is a niche market for colored fleeces, mostly for hand-spinning.

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Additional information

Weight 7 lbs
Dimensions 9.1 in
Domestic Sheep Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Caprinae
Genus: Ovis
Species: O. aries
Binomial name: Ovis aries
Conservation status: Least concerned