Structural adaptive transformations of the head skeleton of animals of different taxonomic groups living in the natural environment of the Southern Urals

Modern concepts of the skeletal system as a complex labile structure of the organism, with a high reactivity to the conditions of both the external and internal environment, indicate the potential for its use as an indicator of structural and functional transformations of the organism. The skeleton as a whole and each of its components separately reflect the characteristic species features of the animal. In this regard, the determination of the patterns of the structural organization of animals and their adaptive transformations to specific environmental conditions becomes possible when studying the skeleton, both as a whole and its individual components. Metric processing of craniometric indicators allows us to identify the distinctive features of microevolutionary processes and the intraspecific structural and functional organization of animals.