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. 2018 Dec 12;285(1893):20181820. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1820

Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Compositional aspects of the ossicles using FTIR imaging. (a) Higher mineral to matrix ratio (MMR) in the whale incus compared to whale vertebral bone and human incus. Dark blue pixels are areas with high PMMA content that were excluded from the evaluation (b) Carbonate-to-phosphate ratio (CPR) is clearly elevated in sperm whale ossicles (left) compared to the other specimens, pixel size = 6.25 μm. (c) FTIR spectra of whale incus (red) and human incus. Clearly, a higher phosphate peak can be seen if taking the amide I peak to the same absorbance. Amide I peak represents the collagen content, the phosphate peak represents the mineral for MMR. (d) Differences in MMR and (e) CPR. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001.