functional matrix hypothesis

File:MLMoss1968.jpg

In the development of vertebrate animals, the functional matrix hypothesis is a phenomenological description of bone growth. It proposes that "the origin, development and maintenance of all skeletal units are secondary, compensatory and mechanically obligatory responses to temporally and operationally prior demands of related functional matrices."Salentijn, L. Functional anatomy of the head and neck, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine post-graduate dental lecture series, 2009{{vs|date=April 2014}}

The fundamental basis for this hypothesis, laid out by Columbia anatomy professor Melvin Moss is that bones do not grow but are grown,Fonseca, Raymond J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=XjLdFSotfiEC&dq=functional+matrix+theory&pg=PA246 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Volume 6], p 246. thus stressing the ontogenetic primacy of function over form.{{cite journal |author=Moss ML |title=The functional matrix hypothesis revisited. 3. The genomic thesis |journal=American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics |volume=112 |issue=3 |pages=338–42 |date=September 1997 |pmid=9294365 |doi=10.1016/S0889-5406(97)70265-8|doi-access=free }} This is in contrast to the current conventional scientific wisdom that genetic, rather than epigenetic (non-genetic) factors, control such growth.

The theory was introduced as a chapter in a dental textbook in 1962.New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/nyregion/29moss.html Dr. Melvin Moss, 83, Theorist on How Bones of Face Grow, Is Dead], June 29, 2006