Extensive chondroid bone in juvenile duck limbs hints at accelerated growth mechanism in avian skeletogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Modern altricial birds are the fastest growing vertebrates, whereas various degrees of precocity (functional maturity) result in slower growth. Diaphyseal osteohistology, the best proxy for inferring relative growth rates in fossils, suggests that in the earliest birds, posthatching growth rates were more variable than in modern representatives, with some showing considerably slow growth that was attributed to their assumed precocial flight abilities. For finding clues how precocial or altricial skeletogenesis and related growth acceleration could be traced in avian evolution, as a case study we investigated the growing limb diaphyseal histology in an ontogenetic series of ducks which, among several other avian taxa, show a combination of altricial wing and precocial leg development. Here

SUBMITTER: Prondvai E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018642 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature