Bone Histology as a Tool for the Search of Dinosaurs

Morphologically unidentifiable bone fragmenls from Jurassic of Jaisalmer (Raja-sthan) and Infratrappean of Kutch (Gujarat) were recently identified to be dinosaurian by their histological examination under petrographic microscope. This was feasible because the tissue structure of dinosaur bones is different from other contemporaneous vertebrates. It is characterised by the occurrence of dense Haversian systems of many generations in greater part of cortex. The note deals with the structure of Haversian System, its mode of occurrence and the methodology for identifying dinosaur bone fragments. It is hoped that the knowledge of bone histology will help in the discovery of new horizons and localities in India where only a few occurrences are known so far.