Postnatal Growth of the Skeletal System of Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) in Captivity )

With the method developed by Dingerkus and Uhler (1977) the author prepared 30 skeletal specimens of the Lady Amhersts Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) chick at different age.In this paper the author discribed the skeletal postnatal growth and fusion from 1 to 143 day old;reported some bones growth equations from 1 to 41 day old,and discussed significance of the growth modes to chicks survival.Fig.1,2,3,4,5,6,7 show the process of ossification and fusion of the bones of skull,mandible,sternum,pelvic girdle,pygostyle,carpus bones and metacarpals,tibia and metatarsals with tarsals from 1 to 143 day old.From 1 to 41 day old,the growth modles of all bones which were measured are Y=a+bx (parameters a,b see table 1),while the growth equations of body weight are:♂Y=3.1267+0.0096x2;♀:Y=4.0692+0.0109x2.The seqence of development and growth is:in the peroid of hatching the brain and feeding structure (premaxilla,maxilla and mandible etc.) develop most completely in all bones which were measured,the lower limb develop more completely than upper limb;in the 41 day postnatal growth,the growth rate of upper limb is the fastest in all bones which were measured,but the growth rate of body weight is not constant,the older the chicks are,the faster the body weights grow.