Fig. 3. Vertebral mineral content during serial demineralization. (A) Vertebrae from anterior and lateral views. Fully mineralized vertebra show the morphology described in Fig. 2. A partially demineralized vertebra contains approximately 25% mineral content by dry mass (DM). A demineralized vertebra has mineral arranged in disjointed fragments and it consists of approximately 10% mineral by dry mass in the cartilage. (B) Mineral content (%) decreases significantly with prolonged immersion in EDTA (F_4,118=108.94; P<0.001). After 279 h in EDTA, vertebrae had approximately 72% of their original mineral content removed. Data is shown in box and whisker plots and letters above the boxes denote significant differences. N=20, except for 0 h (N=100).