Variation and Variability in Skeletal Ossification of the Gray Short-tailed Opossum, Monodelphis domestica.

ABSTRACT: By reconstructing and comparing the sequence of ontogenetic (embryonic development and post-natal growth) events across species, developmental biologists have gained unique insights into the key processes underlying the evolution of modern lineages and their extinct relatives. However, despite the importance of intraspecific variation to evolutionary transformation and lineage divergence, variation in the sequence of developmental events is seldom acknowledged. Thus, how much variation or variability should be expected during ontogeny remains poorly understood and it is an open question to what extent it impacts interspecific comparisons of developmental patterns. To address this crucial question, we studied the skeletal development of the important biomedical and developmental model organ

SUBMITTER: Morris ZS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11305135 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature