Anat Histol Embryol. 2020;00:1–5. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ahe | 1 © 2020 Blackwell Verlag GmbH 1 | INTRODUCTION It is known that the Balkan Peninsula has a very long tradition of sheep breeding (Ćinkulov et al., 2008). Kosovo, one of the countries in the Balkan Peninsula, has a long tradition in sheep farming, and all sheep breeds share triple purpose breed characteristics: milk, meat and wool (Bytyqi & Mehmeti, 2006). Roughly 127.000 sheep of about 4 different breeds are kept in Kosovo based on “Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Rural Development” 2011 data (Bytyqi, Fuerst-Waltl, Mehmeti, & Baumung, 2015). Among sheep breeds, Bardhoka is included in the group of long-tailed and originates from Western part of Kosovo and North/Northeast part of Albania (Hoda, Dobi, & Hyka, 2009; Hoda & Marsan, 2012). Bardhoka sheep is with triple productive profile: milk, lamb meat and wool (Bytyqi, Baumung, Mehmeti, & Fuerst-Waltl, 2014; Hoda & Marsan, 2012). Among three products, Bardhoka sheep has the highest revenue rate for milk yield trait, and this trait is more import - ant than the other sheep products in Kosovo economically (Bytyqi et al., 2015). They are easy to work and milk owing to their calm na- ture (Bytyqi et al., 2014). In contrast to their calm nature, Bardhoka has a strong body structure and bones with large ears on a wide face (Hoda & Marsan, 2012). Bardhoka has a totally white fleece colour, and usually, rams are horned while ewes are polled (Bytyqi et al., 2014; Hoda & Marsan, 2012). Studies on sheep mandible have attracted the attention of many academics. These studies were made in sheep breeds such as Tuj and Morkaraman sheep (Demiraslan, Gülbaz, Özcan, Dayan Orhun, & Akbulut, 2014), Mehraban sheep (Karimi, Hadipour, Nikbakht, & Motamedi, 2011) and Madras Red sheep (Sundaram, Dharani, Gnanadevi, & Kavya, 2019). In addition to sheep, man- dible studies were also conducted for goats, which are economi- cally important for some countries. Iranian native goat (Monfared, Received: 22 January 2020 | Revised: 7 April 2020 | Accepted: 17 April 2020 DOI: 10.1111/ahe.12568 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Morphometric analysis of the mandible of Bardhoka autochthonous sheep in Kosovo Ermiş Özkan 1 | Tefik Jashari 2 | Ozan Gündemir 1 | Nazan Gezer İnce 1 1 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University- Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey 2 Institute of Graduate Studies, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey Correspondence Ermiş Özkan, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey. Email: ermisozkan@istanbul.edu.tr Abstract Kosovo, one of the countries in the Balkan Peninsula, has a long tradition in sheep farming, and sheep breeds share triple purpose breed characteristics: milk, meat and wool. Bardhoka sheep, also with triple productive profile, is an important sheep breed because of its economic value with its milk production. In this study, 24 mandibles of adult Bardhoka sheep (12 male and 12 female) aged between 2 and 5 were used. The sheep were acquired from slaughterhouse around Kosovo, and the mandibles were selected without any deformities from healthy sheep. After cleaning the mandibles, a total of 12 morphometric measurements were taken from each sample using digital calliper. The difference between female and male was statistically significant ( p < .05) for measurement 11 (height of mandible level of alveolar edge of 3rd molar tooth). The mean value of measurement 11 in male individuals was 42.26 ± 3.96, and it had a higher value than in female individuals (39.37 ± 2.57). In the literature, knowledge related to mandible morphometry of Bardhoka sheep was insufficient. The aim of this study was to determine mean values from osteometric measurements of Bardhoka sheep mandible and obtain references with the values acquired. KEYWORDS bardhoka, mandible, osteometric, sheep