Bones and Cartilage

Bones and Cartilage provides the most in-depth review and synthesis assembled on the topic, across all vertebrates. It examines the function, development and evolution of bone and cartilage as tissues, organs and skeletal systems. It describes how bone and cartilage develop in embryos and are maintained in adults, how bone is repaired when we break a leg, or regenerates when a newt grows a new limb, or a lizard a new tail. The second edition of Bones and Cartilage includes the most recent knowledge of molecular, cellular, developmental and evolutionary processes, which are integrated to outline a unified discipline of developmental and evolutionary skeletal biology. Additionally, coverage includes how the molecular and cellular aspects of bones and cartilage differ in different skeletal systems and across species, along with the latest studies and hypotheses of relationships between skeletal cells and the most recent information on coupling between osteocytes and osteoclasts.

Table of Contents:

Part I Vertebrate Skeletal Tissues
1.  Vertebrate Skeletal Tissues
2.  Bone
3.  Vertebrate Cartilages

Part II Origins and Types of Skeletal Tissues
4.  Invertebrate Cartilages, Notochordal Cartilage and Cartilage Origins
5.  Intermediate Tissues
6.  Lessons from Fossils

Part III Unusual Modes of Skeletogenesis
7.  Horns and Ossicones
8.  Antlers
9.  Tendon Skeletogenesis and Sesamoids

Part IV Stem and Progenitor Cells
10.  Embryonic Stem and Progenitor Cells
11.  Stem and Progenitor Cells in Adults

Part V Skeletogenic Cells
12.  Bipotential Osteochondroprogenitor Cells
13.  Dedifferentiation of Chondrocytes and Endochondral Ossification
14.  Dedifferentiation and Stem Cells: Regeneration of Urodele Limbs and Mammalian Fingertips
15.  Cells to Make and Cells to Break

Part VI Embryonic Origins
16.  Skeletal Origins: Somitic Mesoderm, Vertebrae, Pectoral and Pelvic Girdles
17.  Skeletal Origins: Neural Crest Cells
18.  Epithelial–Mesenchymal Interactions initiate Skeletogenesis

Part VII Getting Started
19.  The Membranous Skeleton: Condensations
20.  From Condensation to Differentiation
21.  Skulls, Eyes and Ears: Condensations and Tissue Interactions

Part VIII Similarity and Diversity
22.  Chondrocyte Diversity
23.  Cartilage Diversity
24.  Osteoblast and Osteocyte Diversity and Osteogenesis in vitro
25.  Diversity of Bone as a Tissue and as an Organ

Part IX Maintaining Cartilage in Good Times and in Bad
26.  Maintaining Differentiated Chondrocytes through Cell–Matrix Interactions
27.  Maintenance Awry – Chondrodysplasias and Achondroplasia
28.  Restarting Mammalian Articular Chondrocytes
29.  Repair of Fractures and Regeneration of Growth Plates

Part X Growing Together and Growing Apart
30.  Initiating Skeletal Growth
31.  Growth and Morphogenesis of Long Bones
32.  Long Bone Growth: A Case of Crying Wolff?

Part XI Staying Apart
33.  The Temporomandibular Joint and Cranial Synchondroses
34.  Sutures and Craniosynostosis

Part XII Limb Buds
35.  The Mesodermal Limb Field and the Apical Epithelial Ridge
36.  Adding or Deleting an Apical Epithelial Ridge
37.  Limb Buds in Limbed and Limbless Tetrapods

Part XIII Limbs and Limb Skeletons
38.  Axes and Polarity of Limb Buds and Limbs
39.  Patterning and Shaping Limb Buds and Limb Skeletons
40.  Before Limbs There Were Fins

Part XIV Backbones and Tails
41.  Vertebral Chondrogenesis: Cell Differentiation and Morphogenesis
42.  Relationships between Notochord and Vertebral Cartilage
43.  Tail Buds, Tails and Taillessness

Part XV Evolutionary Skeletal Biology
44.  Variation
45.  Variation Outside the Norm: Neomorphs and Atavisms

I have been interested in and studying skeletal tissues since my undergraduate days in Australia in the 1960s. Those early studies on the development of secondary cartilage in embryonic birds, first published in 1967, have come full circle with the discovery of secondary cartilage in dinosaurs12. Bird watching really is flying reptile watching. Skeletal tissue development and evolution, the embryonic origins of skeletal tissues (especially those that arise from neural crest cells), and integrating development and evolution in what is now known as evo-devo have been my primary preoccupations over the past 50+ years. at is now known as evo-devo have been my primary preoccupations over the past 50+ years."