Bone microstructure and the evolution of growth patterns in Permo-Triassic therocephalians (Amniota, Therapsida) of South Africa.

ABSTRACT: Therocephalians were a speciose clade of nonmammalian therapsids whose ecological diversity and survivorship of the end-Permian mass extinction offer the potential to investigate the evolution of growth patterns across the clade and their underlying influences on post-extinction body size reductions, or 'Lilliput effects'. We present a phylogenetic survey of limb bone histology and growth patterns in therocephalians from the Middle Permian through Middle Triassic of the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Histologic sections were prepared from 80 limb bones representing 11 genera of therocephalians. Histologic indicators of skeletal growth, including cortical vascularity (%CV) and mean primary osteon diameters (POD), were evaluated in a phylogenetic framework and assessed for correlations with othe

SUBMITTER: Huttenlocker AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3994631 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature