Hard Stuff Topic 4.
Bone is a marvelous innovation of the vertebrates.
This write-up is to accompany a slide show. Much of the material is covered in somewhat more detail in the Tissue Organization lab write-up, which you need to read carefully. The mineralized tissues, more than any other tissue, connect us with our past because they readily fossilize. Perhaps our bony dermal cranium derives from the bony head armor of the ostracoderms, ancient jawless fishes. See PJH for tooth structure and development.