Bone histology, palaeobiology, and early diagenetic history of extinct equids from Turkey

摘要: Bone histology has proved to be a valuable tool obtain information about the palaeobiology and early taphonomic history of fossil vertebrates. However, there are still many extinct taxa for which bone studies could applied deduce their life diagenetic changes. Here, we partially fill this gap by studying microstructure micropreservation in third metapodia Hipparion Equus recovered from several Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene localities Turkey. Our histological analysis reveals that most cortices under study composed well-vascularized fibrolamellar bone. Furthermore, record presence compact coarse cancellous metatarsal. In terms preservation, our findings provide supporting evidence differences moisture, oxygen, and/or temperature during fossilisation at different impacted quality preservation. Bacterial bioerosion was extensive samples, also identified specific tunnelling morphology tentatively consider damage caused freshwater algae. The present provides novel insight into horses Turkey sets stage further research area.