Data from: Secondary osteons scale allometrically in mammalian humerus and femur

Intra-cortical bone remodelling is a cell-driven process that replaces
existing bone tissue with new bone tissue in the bone cortex, leaving
behind histological features called secondary osteons. While the scaling
of bone dimensions on a macroscopic scale is well known, less is known
about how the spatial dimensions of secondary osteons vary in relation to
the adult body size of the species. We measured the cross-sectional area
of individual intact secondary osteons and their central Haversian canals
in transverse sections from 40 stylopodal bones of 39 mammalian species
(body mass 0.3–21 000 kg). Scaling analysis of our data shows that mean
osteonal resorption area (negative allometry, exponent 0.23,R2
0.54,p<0.005) and Haversian canal area (negative allometry,
exponent 0.31,R2 0.45,p<0.005) are significantly related to body
mass, independent of phylogeny. This study is the most comprehensive of
its kind to date, and allows us to describe overall trends in the scaling
behaviour of secondary osteon dimensions, supporting the inference that
the osteonal resorption area may be limited by the need to avoid fracture
in smaller mammalian species, but the need to maintain osteocyte viability
in larger mammalian species.