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Age Ep
Chat
Smith. R.N. 1969. 'Fusion of ossification centres in the cat',
Journal
of Small Animal Practice 10, 523-30.
And if anyone else knows
of a more recent source, I would be grateful to
hear of
it.
Terry
O'Connor
the second edition of
Habermehl's book (1975) has some information on epiphysial closure in
cats
(complete
reference: Habermehl, K.-H. (1975) Die Alterbestimmung bei haus- und
Labortieren. Berlin: Parey, pp. 177).
If people have trouble getting
the book or with German language (the German name for the bones is used instead
of their Latin one), I could translate the information and post it in a
subsequent message.
Jaco
Dear
Salima,
reading Habermehl (1975) more carefully I realized that he is
quoting investigations by Schaeffer (1932).
the
epiphyseal closure times that he gives are the
following:
ca. 8½ months: coracoid process in scapula, acetabulum in
pelvis, distal humerus, proximal radius, calcaneus, and (apparently) both
proximal and distal epiphyses in Femur
ca. 10 months: proximal ulna and
phalanges
ca. 11½ months: distal metapodials, proximal humerus, distal
radius and ulna, both epiphyses in the tibia, and distal
fibula.
He mentions, however, that according to Kayanja (1970), the
fusion times for the distal and proximal end of the humerus are 7¾ and 8½ months
respectively.
It would be interesting to compare these fusion times with
those of Smith (1969)...
regards,
Jaco
A
point that I have noticed in the literature on ageing is that many people still
rely upon Silver's (1969) old epiphyseal fusion graphs. If you notice, he
reversed the information for phalanges, instead giving the information for the
proximal in the place of the distal. Anyone who has read Halbermahl and other
German/Swiss sources would recognize this, but most english-only readers would
not.
Haskel J.
Greenfield, Ph.D.