THE C-BANDED, G-BANDED, AND R-BANDED KARYOTYPE OF THE SCIMITAR-HORNED ORYX (ORYX DAMMAH)

Karyotypes of five males and one female scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) were prepared using lymphocyte and skin cells. CBG-, GTG-, and RBG-banded chromosomes were analysed and the banding patterns were compared with those of cattle, revealing a high level of homoeology except for chromosomes 9, 14, 21, Y, and X. Standard karyotypes are proposed for the scimitar-horned oryx karyotype, which contains is chromosomes with one pair of large submetacentric autosomes and 27 acrocentric autosomal pairs. The X and Y chromosomes are the largest and smallest acrocentrics. The scimitar-horned oryx chromosome 1 is submetacentric and appears to result from the fusion between ancestral forms of bovid chromosomes numbered 1 and 29 according to the READING CONFERENCE (1980) nomenclature and to ISCNDA 89 if GTG-banding is used.