Supplementary Online Material Table S1: Trabecular data of the hand and foot in a primate sample
Description
Modern primates differ in their ontogenetic locomotor strategies. Given the wide spectrum of locomotor differences and phylogenetic relatedness among the hominoids Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Homo sapiens, and the cercopithecoid Macaca mulatta, this study tests the hypothesis that taxa with substantial locomotor shifts through ontogeny will show significant shifts in trabecular patterning through ontogeny. Trabecular architecture is quantified here in the capitate, third metacarpal, lateral cuneiform, and third metatarsal bones of dentally-defined age groups representing juveniles, adolescents, and adults for each taxon. Trabecular thickness (Tb.Th.) and Bone surface area/Bone volume (BS/BV) showed changes through growth across all bones and taxa, while significant changes in trabecular number (Tb.N) through ontogeny characterized the hands and feet of Pan, Gorilla, and Macaca. Degree of anisotropy (DA) partially met expectations of showing significant change in the Pan and Macaca hand and foot, though the hypothesis was supported when DA was assessed in combination with trabecular spacing (Tb.Sp.) as a potential indicator of loading uniformity. This study is the first to assess trabecular change through ontogeny in multiple bones and across several taxa, and finds that trabecular bone shifts in structural property through ontogeny in line with locomotor change in these taxa.