ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2021
What's my age again? On the ambiguity of histology-based skeletochronology.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Do osteohistology, microanatomy or life history traits show patterns linked to neotenic lifestyles in extant Caudata and the Permian temnospondyl Apateon?BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Synchrotron imaging reveals diversity in archosauromorph growth strategies by the end of the early Triassic.iScience · 2026Article
- Stochastic growth marks in Crocodylus niloticus.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- State-of-the-Art Age Determination Methods for Amphibians and Reptiles.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Evolution of growth strategy in alligators and caimans informed by osteohistology of the late Eocene early-diverging alligatoroid crocodylian Diplocynodon hantoniensis.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- The pseudosuchian record in paleohistology: A small review.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2025Review
- Growing with dinosaurs: a review of dinosaur reproduction and ontogeny.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Unique bone histology of modern giant salamanders: a study on humeri and femora of Andrias spp.Zoological letters · 2024Article
- Diverse growth rates in Triassic archosaurs-insights from a small terrestrial Middle Triassic pseudosuchian.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2024Article
- Osteohistological insight into the growth dynamics of early dinosaurs and their contemporaries.PloS one · 2024Article
- Palaeoecological deductions from osteohistology.Biology letters · 2023Review
- Osteohistology and palaeobiology of giraffids from the Mio-Pliocene Langebaanweg (South Africa).Journal of anatomy · 2023Review
- Bone histology of Neogene angulate tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) from South Africa: palaeobiological and skeletochronological implications.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Osteohistological description of ostrich and emu long bones, with comments on markers of growth.Journal of anatomy · 2022Article
- Life history and ossification patterns inPeerJ · 2022Article
- Growth variability, dimensional scaling, and the interpretation of osteohistological growth data.Biology letters · 2021Article
- What's my age again? On the ambiguity of histology-based skeletochronology.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Bone labeling experiments and intraskeletal growth patterns in captive leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius).Journal of anatomyArticle
- Growth and life history of freshwater chelydrid turtles (Testudines: Cryptodira): A bone histological approach.Journal of anatomyArticle
- Osteohistological signal from the smallest known phytosaur femur reveals slow growth and new insights into the evolution of growth in Archosauria.Journal of anatomyArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Histology-based skeletochronology is a widely used approach to determine the age of an individual, and is based on the assumption that temporal cessations or decelerations of bone growth lead to incremental growth marks (GM), reflecting annual cycles. We studied the reliability of histology-based skeletochronology in a variety of extant tetrapods by comparing two different approaches: petrographic ground sections versus stained microtomized sections. Each bone was cut into two corresponding halves at its growth centre in order to apply both approaches to one and the same sample. None of the samples unequivocally revealed the actual age of the specimens, but truly concerning is the fact that the majority of samples even led to conflicting age estimates between the two approaches. Although the microtomized sections tended to yield more GM and thus indicated an older age than the ground sections, the contrary also occurred. Such a pronounced ambiguity in skeletochronological data strongly challenges the value of the respective age determinations for both extant and extinct animals. We conclude that much more research on the fundamental methodological side of skeletochronology-especially regarding the general nature and microscopic recognition of GM-is required.
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