Histological study of sauropod dinosaur bones from the historic Upper Jurassic Howe Quarry (Wyoming, USA): determination of an age range for every specimen

 

Jacopo Moretti¹, Emanuel Tschopp², Daniel Barta², Katja Waskow³ & Mark Norell²

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Giuseppe Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy; jachi.moretti@hotmail.it.
² American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West & 79° street, 10024 New York, NY, USA.
³ Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy, and Paleontology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53113 Bonn, Germany.

 

How to cite: Moretti et al. (2018). Histological study of sauropod dinosaur bones from the historic Upper Jurassic Howe Quarry (Wyoming, USA): determination of an age range for every specimen. Fossilia, Volume 2018: 23-25. https://doi.org/10.32774/FosRepPal.20.1810.092325


Bullet-Points Abstract

  • Morphological and Histological study on sauropod bones from the Howe Quarry with the determination of an age range and ontogenetic stage for every specimen.
  • Eight specimens studied, one fibula and seven ribs: three skeletally mature, three sexually mature, one juvenile and one undetermined.
  • Useful and generally applicable method without a taxonomical assignment.


Keywords: Howe Quarry; sauropods; bone histology; age range; ontogenetic stage.


 
 

Fig. 1. Resume of images and data of AMNH FARB 30901. A, 3D scan of the dorsal rib (the red line indicates sectioning of following frames). B, thin section (and detail on the right) illustrating LAGs (in red), the EFS is only visible under optical microscope, white holes represent osteons. C, data gathered from this specimen.

Fig. 2. General graphic representing the distances of LAGs from the center of the rib in all the studied specimens.

Fig. 3. General graphic representing the distances between LAGs in all the studied specimens.