ArticleScientific reports2025
Stochastic growth marks in Crocodylus niloticus.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Synchrotron imaging reveals diversity in archosauromorph growth strategies by the end of the early Triassic.iScience · 2026Article
- Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Skeletochronology combined with growth curve reconstruction is routinely used to assess the age and growth dynamics of extinct and extant vertebrates. Here we performed in vivo labelling studies of the bone histology of four 2 years-old Crocodylus niloticus individuals. We found that all the crocodiles have more growth marks in their compacta than expected for their age, i.e., they deposited stochastic growth marks in their bones. Using the fluorochrome markers we determined that these stochastic growth marks were deposited during their favourable season of growth. The variable preservation of growth marks in the crocodile bones highlights developmental plasticity in their growth, which can be extrapolated to extinct archosaurs, and other reptiles. We caution the use of growth marks in fossil bones as a reliable estimator of age and discuss the far-reaching implications this has for growth curve reconstruction and life history assessments of extinct vertebrates, such as nonavian dinosaurs.
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