Padian Kevin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780520273528
- eISBN:
- 9780520955110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520273528.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Paleontology: Biology
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 ...
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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.Less
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.
Michael Schultz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195389807
- eISBN:
- 9780190254308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195389807.003.0074
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter discusses the history of the paleohistology, covering its nature, methods, and techniques. It then presents brief biographies of some pioneers in paleohistology. These include Austrian ...
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This chapter discusses the history of the paleohistology, covering its nature, methods, and techniques. It then presents brief biographies of some pioneers in paleohistology. These include Austrian anatomist Josef R. Schaffer (1861–1939) who made the first attempts to study the morphological structure of hard tissues at the microscopic level in paleopathology; and Sir Marc Armand Ruffer (1859–1917), a British bacteriologist and hygienist who examined Egyptian mummies microscopically.Less
This chapter discusses the history of the paleohistology, covering its nature, methods, and techniques. It then presents brief biographies of some pioneers in paleohistology. These include Austrian anatomist Josef R. Schaffer (1861–1939) who made the first attempts to study the morphological structure of hard tissues at the microscopic level in paleopathology; and Sir Marc Armand Ruffer (1859–1917), a British bacteriologist and hygienist who examined Egyptian mummies microscopically.
