Ossification of the rat and mouse skeleton in the perinatal period

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Abstract
In the perinatal period the skeletal development of rats and mice showed transient stages of missing to incomplete or largely complete ossification. Alizarin red S staining revealed characteristic morphological patterns of maturation, which differed from one part of the skeleton to another. In the two species examined all the skeletal elements were ossified 2 days after birth. In about 12% of the rats and 90% of the mice an additional sternebra formed in the postnatal period. In a small number of cases abnormal ossification was observed. A few days after term the spontaneous rate of abnormally ossified bones was found to be 0.51% in the rats and 1.40% in the mice. A reduced rate of ossification at a given time of development which is never less within the normal range, may be indicative of a nonspecific retardation of fetal maturation.