Why Study the Bone Microstructure of Fossil Tetrapods?
Why Study the Bone Microstructure of Fossil Tetrapods?
This chapter discusses the “four signals” of bone histology: ontogeny, phylogeny, mechanics, and environment. These “signals” help us to make sense of the kinds of variation seen in the bone tissues of extinct tetrapods. They have been shown empirically to be reliable guides to the interpretation of the most basic question in the paleohistology of bone: Why is this tissue formed the way it is, and why does it differ from the tissue of this other animal? Along with some calibration methods based on teeth in many mammalian groups, bone histology forms the basis of skeletochronology, the only currently available universal line of evidence that provides an absolute age on the skeletons of extinct vertebrates.
Keywords: bone histology, ontogeny, phylogeny, mechanics, environment, paleohistology, skeletochronology, extinct vertebrates
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