[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]
Re: Spare ribs?
In a message dated 2/14/01 1:38:56 AM EST, mbonnan@hotmail.com writes:
<< Chevrons are not homologous to ribs, however, because they are essentially
modified haemal arches and arise below (ventral to) the bodies (centra) of
the vertebrae. Ribs articulate with the centra and transverse processes
instead. >>
If you look at the skeletons (such as they are) of the most primitive living
vertebrates, it seems to me that the cervical ribs, thoracic/abdominal ribs,
and hemal arches form a pretty continuous series along the vertebral column,
and that the details of how and where they articulate with the vertebrae in
various places along the column are secondary. This leads me to suspect that
they arise in the same way from the same precursor structures during the
ontogenetic development of the vertebrate body. Unfortunately, my copy of
Romer's Osteology of the Vertebrates is buried, so I cannot confirm this (if
this topic is even discussed there); but it seems unparsimonious for
vertebrates to develop ribs in one set of loci and hemal arches independently
in another set of loci where the ribs are not found. The only other thing I
can think dinosaurian hemal arches might be is modified intercentra, which
seems possible but weird.
Any embryologists out there who might shed some light on this?