Ontogeny of Surface Texture of Limb Bones in Modern Aquatic Birds and Applicability of Textural Ageing

Despite its importance in various disciplines, a general method to assess ontogenetic ages of skeletal and fossil specimens has been lacking for birds. Although the textural ageing method was formulated to assess relative ontogenetic ages of specimens from inspection of bone surface textures, the exact correspondence of surface textures to ontogenetic stages has not yet been clear. In this study, bone surface textures of six major limb bones...