Living experiments on Meckel's cartilage breakdown
Mouse genetic perturbation and opossum clast-cell inhibition test how Meckel's cartilage removal can uncouple the lower jaw from middle-ear elements during development.
Represented range0–0 Ma
RegionsLaboratory mouse and gray short-tailed opossum developmental series
c-Fos mutant mice and clast-cell inhibition in Monodelphis show that blocking cartilage resorption can retain or ossify Meckel's cartilage and preserve a jaw–ear connection, but these living perturbations do not directly reveal the mechanism in any fossil.