Inferring Physiology from Bones

1
Larsson Lab
 2
Larsson Lab
 Anatomy of a bone
head

lesser trochanter

4th trochanter
Sinraptor dongi
curves
shaft

distal condyles
Currie & Zhao 1993 3
 long bone formation

unknown source 4
 long bone formation | longitudinal growth

Yale Med, Baron et al. 2015 5

 long bone formation | lateral growth

visiblebody.com, Pearson Education 6

 long bone osteon organization

Cooper et al. 2003, de Boef & Larsson 2007 7

 long bone osteons | what drives their morphology?

Alligator tibia and fibula

Fewer osteons in
ectothermic animals
- slower growth rates

100 um

Woodward et al. 2014 8

 long bone osteons | what drives their morphology?
sheep humerus (a,b) femur (c,d) cow humerus (a,b) femur (c,d)

80 um

Body size (10 X difference) does not seem to influence osteon morphology

Zedda & Babosova 2021 9

 long bone osteons | what drives their morphology?
Emu femur Laminarity Index (LI) over ontogeny
8 weeks 16 weeks

80 um

1 mm

12 weeks 60 weeks

Laminarity is associated with age (slower

growth & larger mass)
Kuehn et al. 2019 10
 long bone formation | lateral growth (hadrosaur tibia)
medullary bone
cortical bone

Growth is
not
uniform

Medullary
bone is
remodelled
with
secondary
osteons

Wosik et al. 2020 11

 long bone formation | lateral growth (e.g. T. rex femur & fibula)

Lines of
Arrested
Growth
(LAGs)

are
cyclical
and
probably
annual

Horner & Padian 2004 12

 long bone formation | lateral growth (e.g. T. rex femur & fibula)
MOR1152-Fi

1 mm

T. rex took about 20-25

years to reach skeletal
maturity (= sexual
maturity?)

Horner & Padian 2004 13

 Asian elephant growth rate
sexual maturity
MOR1152-Fi

1 mm

males

females

Asian elephant takes about

14 years to reach sexual
maturity and around 25
years to reach skeletal
maturity

Chapman et al. 2016 14

 Maiasaura nesting & parental behaviour

Embryonic bones – unossified long bone ends,

wear facets on teeth

Horner 1999, Elly Kish 15

 Maiasaura growth
Tibial length distribution from a single quarry

Woodward et al. 2015 16

 Maiasaura growth

Suggests hadrosaurs
grew to adult size in
about 4 years!

Horner et al. 2000 17

 Maiasaura growth
Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs)
Cyclical bone deposition – present in many
ectothermic and endothermic animals

Woodward et al. 2015 500 um 18

 Maiasaura population dynamics
Survivorship curve from a hypothetical starting generation of 1000

High juvenile surivorship

suggests effective parental
care

Could be biased by the

nesting site taphonomy,
but the best we have so far

Woodward et al. 2015 19

 Predator-prey growth dynamics
Suggests hadrosaurs outgrew their predators

Hypacrosaurus

Albertosaurus

Cooper et al. 2008, Scott Hartman 20

 Raman spectra microscopy of biomolecules in fossil bone!
Metabolic advanced lipoxidation end products (ALEs)

Wiemann et al. 2022 21

 Raman spectra microscopy of
biomolecules in fossil bone!

Suggests endothermy evolved in

Mammalia, Ornithodira,
Plesiosauria, and even varanid
lizards

And reverted to ectothermy in

several ornithischian lineages,
including hadrosaurs,
ceratopsians, and stegosaurs

Wiemann et al. 2022 22

 Metaplastic bone formation

Mouse left forelimb, lateral view

Blitz et al. 2013 23

 Metaplastic bone formation Novel ‘field’ of cells that form the tendons that
signal to incoming muscles

Sox9 in eminence development (Col2a1)

greater tuberosity
deltoid tuberosity
lesser tuberosity
Thompson et al. 2012, Blitz et al. 2013 24
Bone development offers many
routes to anatomical change

Genetic – ‘programmed’
cartilage precursors, epiphyseal
plate extensions

Environmental – metaplastic
bone formation and remodelling

25
 Hadrosauridae body size
Could parental care influence body size and skeletal variation?

wikipedia 26
 hadrosaur eggs | Maiasaura & Hypacrosaurus

Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

With many known nesting sites, adult care appears to be ubuquitous, at least for hadrosaurs
Weekly developed long bone joints of hatchlings suggest a degree of altriciality 27
 Dinosaur variation driven by altricial young?
wing length is proportionately longer in altricial birds
altricial precocial

altricial vs precocial. tradeoffs

slope=1.42 slope=1.27
more invested parental care vs. little to none

extended 'embryonic growth', relatively smaller

hatchlings, perhaps more offspring per clutch,
requires some degree of social
behaviour/community, can diversify skeletal
anatomy more ‘freely’

Wikipedia, Carrier & Auriemma 1992 28

 summary

Bone development offers many routes to anatomical change (genetic and environmental)

Elaborate hard and soft tissues known for some hadrosaurs, suggesting a complex life history

Nesting sites known, with adults, juveniles, hatchlings, and eggs

indicate parental care

Growth series suggest extremely rapid growth rates for hadrosaurs

29