Re: Dinosaur bone histology

[ST-grock@artemis.earth.monash.edu.au (Darren R. Grocke)]

P.L.Manning@sheffield.ac.uk wrote:

>The problem which I am facing is a 
>fragmentary vertebrate record from a high energy palaeoenvironment.
>I have already identified crocodile remains from the locality, thanks 
>to a couple of well placed scutes and skull fragments, however some
> of the bone is relatively massive in comparison to the croc bits and 
>appears to have been passed through the 'mother of all taphonomic 
>filters !!' leaving me with little in the way of bone morphology to go 
>on ?


If you are planning to identify bones (or animals) via bone histology think
again.  It is not the most concrete of approaches.  Identification within
species can be quite large.  After speaking with Chinsamy and Reid (see
papers below) there is more work needed to even begin to make such an
assumption from bone histology.  Chinsamy and I are doing a number of thin
sections at the moment so hopefully within the next year more data will be
available for you Phillip.

        Reid, R. E. H. (1984).  Primary Bone and Dinosaurian Physiology. 
Geological Magazine 121 (6):589-98. 

        ___________. (1987).  Bone and Dinosaur Endothermy.  Modern Geology
11:133-54.

        ___________. (1990).  Zonal "Growth Rings" in Dinosaurs.  Modern
Geology 15:19-48.

        Ricqles, A. de (1994).  A. Meyendorff, A.F. de Lapparent, Ch. L.
Camp et les premieres recherches paleohistologiques sur les dinosaures du
Sahara.  Annales de Paleontologie 80 (2):143-53.

        Buffrenil, V. de, Ricqles, A. de, Sigogneau-Russell, D., &
Buffetaut, E.  (1990).  L'Histologie osseuse des Champsosaurides donnees
descriptives et interpretation fonctionnelle.  Annales de Paleontologie 76
(4):255-75.

Regards,

Darren

Darren R. Grocke
Dept. of Earth Sciences
Monash University
Clayton         Victoria
Australia       3168

Tel: (03) 905 5161
Fax: (03) 905 4903