Premium
Calibration of life history traits with epiphyseal closure, dental eruption and bone histology in captive and wild red deer
Author(s) -
Calderón Teresa,
DeMiguel Daniel,
Arnold Walter,
Stalder Gabrielle,
Köhler Meike
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of anatomy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.932
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1469-7580
pISSN - 0021-8782
DOI - 10.1111/joa.13016
Subject(s) - cervus elaphus , biology , extant taxon , anatomy , ontogeny , histology , skull , zoology , evolutionary biology , ecology , genetics
The study of skeletochronology and bone tissue as a record of information on ontogenetic stages and events is widely used for improving the knowledge about life histories ( LH s) of extinct and extant vertebrates. Compared with dinosaurs and extant reptiles, mammalian bone histology has received little attention. Here, we calibrate for the first time bone and dental age with histological bone characteristics and LH stages in ontogenetic series of red deer. We rely on known LH s of different aged individuals of captive Cervus elaphus hippelaphus from Austria to correlate epiphyseal closure, dental eruption pattern, bone growth marks and bone tissue patterns in femora and tibiae, and of wild Cervus elaphus hispanicus from Spain. Our data show that females (of both subspecies) attain skeletal maturity earlier than males. At this moment, epiphyseal closure (in femora and tibiae) and dental eruption are complete and long bones start to deposit an external fundamental system. The results also show that the attainment of reproductive maturity in red deer occurs slightly before skeletal maturity.